Zamboanga City wins over Cebu City as outstanding City Council

Cebu City’s lack of a Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) gave Zamboanga City an edge to win this year’s Most Outstanding Sanguniang Panlungsod (SP) national award, said Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young.

But Young said that their award as Most Outstanding SP in the Central Visayas region was already a good enough recognition of the City Council’s effort to innovate and improve on the performance of their legislative functions.

“We will just try to already have that (CLUP) the next time that we vie for the most Outstanding council award,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Young and City Council members were at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City yesterday for the Philippine Councilors League national convention and the recognition of outstanding SPs.

Winners in the national competition were announced before the convention ended.

Mayor Michael Rama said he wished the City Council won the competition.

Cebu City has won the national award for the Most Outstanding SP when Rama was still vice mayor.

Young said they were told by award organizers that Zamboanga City won because they already had their CLUP which they used as basis in putting up their eco-town. The CLUP is used by local government units as a zoning guide.

The vice mayor said that he was also told by Cebu City Council Cynthia Kahulugan that Zamboanga City Council sent representatives to the city last year to learn from its SP operations.

“This (our defeat) is a call for the city planning office to already come up with a CLUP not only as a requirement for the award but also as a requirement to the city zoning ordinance,” he said.

Young said that the 1996 zoning ordinance was passed even in the absence of a CLUP “which is a requirement in its passage.”

“The zoning ordinance was passed because if we cannot wait for the CLUP. We will just integrate later on the CLUP,” he said in Cebuano.

Young said that the zoning ordinance remains valid even in the absence of a CLUP, but its validity can easily be questioned.

Now that a proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance is already being reviewed by the City Council, Young said, that the city planning office led by Engr. Alipio Bacalso should also be reminded of their responsibility to already come up with a CLUP, the deadline of which set by the national government already lapsed last year.