Enforcing laws and ordinances present a huge challenge: Sara
THE CITY Government admits the challenge of implementing various provisions of the ordinances passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
“The city government is currently confronted with various challenges and concerns in relation to the implementation and observance of the provisions of various ordinances,” Mayor Sara Duterte said in a press statement issued by the City Information Office.
Under the Local Government Code, the mayor
is authorized to enforce all laws and ordinances relative to the governance of the city, and issue executive orders for the enforcement and execution of laws and ordinances.
Among the ordinances being implemented by the city are the City Ordinance No. 0367421 Series of 2012 known as the New Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance of Davao City; Ordinance No. 004-131 Series of 2013, otherwise known as the Liquor Ban Ordinance.
Also, Ordinance No. 064-02, Series of 2002, known as “An Ordinance Prohibiting Retailers, Wholesalers, Grocery Stores, Convenience Stores and other Businesses from Selling or Allowing to be Sold to Minors in their Respective Store and Establishments Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products, Beer, Liquor and other Intoxicating Beverages and Prohibiting All Minors, Aged 17 and Below from Buying Ordering and Serving, Selling or Drinking Beer, Liquor, Coconut Wine, Ordering or Smoking cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products from Wholesale, Retail Grocer or Convenience Stores and all other Business Establishments in the City of Davao” in relation to Section 7 of the Ordinance.
With this, the mayor signed an executive order mandating the City Vices Regulation Unit (VRU) to implement the Sobriety Ordinance. In the EO 11 series of 2019 signed earlier this month, the VRU shall ensure that “drinking alcoholic beverages in public streets” in the city is prohibited.
The Sobriety Ordinance, passed in March of 2018, prohibited “drinking or consuming of alcoholic beverages in public streets, sidewalks, public parks and playgrounds, and other public areas.”
The VRU, which was created in 2017, is tasked to implement the various vice implementing measures of the city.
With the EO, the VRU is now tasked to implement not just the Liquor Ban Ordinance and the New Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance, but the said Sobriety Ordinance, as well.