QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista is proposing to give the mayors in Metro Manila legislative powers to enable them to craft laws that would be applicable to the capital region.
Bautista, as the metro’s Regional Peace and Order Council chairman, expressed his views during a recent meeting of the technical working group of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development.
Congress is working to consolidate two bills concerning the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority—House Bill 4642 authored by Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, and House Bill 5057 by Reps. Bayani Fernando of Marikina City, Castelo, Dale Malapitan and Edgar Erice of Caloocan City.
The Metro Manila Mayors Council, MMDA’s policy-making body, should be granted special legislative powers to authorize the local chief executives to craft ordinances that would be uniformly implemented in the National Capital Region, Bautista said.
“It is just okay to give the mayors the legislatives powers under the MMDA, provided the powers are clearly defined,” he added.
Bautista said the legislative powers should be regulatory in nature, considering several instances wherein metro mayors could have acted as legislators. He cited the situation in 2014 when Malacanang intervened to address the port congestion at the Port of Manila.
The mayor said Quezon City has become a model and trailblazer in various aspects of governance.
President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Bautista to head the Regional Peace and Order Council.