THE MOUNTAINEER

Travails of local officials
(Continued from next week)
Edison L. Baddal

As the LCE cannot attend meetings every now and then as he has synchronous other things to keep him occupied, he should then strategize the clumsy situation by converting the LSBs as mother committees while subsuming the statutory committees with related functions to the
former.

For instance, under the Local Dev’t Council, the statutory councils like the Project Monitoring
Council, Sports Dev’t Council, Small and Medium Enterprise Dev’t Council, Disaster Coordinating Council, and others could be subsumed as committees.

Under the LPOC the Child Protection Councils, Anti-Drug Abuse Council, Price Monitoring
Council, LPG Task Force and other committees with related functions to the enhancement and strengthening of peace and order could be subsumed as subcommittees.

For the Local School Board, the Literacy Coordinating Council could be subsumed as its subcommittee. In this way, the LCE is saved from having to contend with adjusting and readjusting his time just to fulfill the mandate of functionalizing the statutory councils hand in hand with the Local Special Bodies.

Also, by adopting the abovementioned strategy, the proverbial hitting of two or more birds
with only one slingshot is attained even while the both the LSBs and the statutory committees
are made operational. Their contributions are also optimized towards achievement of effective, efficient, self reliant and responsive local governance.

Some LCEs have already resorted to this and they have succeeded. Lawyer Maximo Dalog, the incumbent governor of Mountain Province, a workaholic and a fast worker, discovered wisdom
of subsuming or emplacing comprehensively the statutory committees under LSBs inasmuch
as the functions and duties of the latter are relevant to a specific LSB.

This afforded him ample time to respond to equally pressing matters in governance. And then aside from rationalizing the meetings of the committees, logistical and financial resources of the LGU are maximized.

The problem with this is that LCEs might be charged with abandonment of duty if they fail to make operational these different bodies. These bodies are mandated under our laws and under the Code, an LCE’s foremost function is to enforce all laws and ordinances in his
jurisdiction.

Failing to operationalize such bodies after they have been organized will invite trouble, let alone harm, for the LCE. Some LCEs have proven this to be viable and doable and may be this could be replicated in the rest of LGUs. It could even be considered a strategic and exemplary practice as far as making functional LSBs and statutory committees is concerned.

How about it apo mayor, governor? Just recommending.