City legal office bares plan to hold anti-graft seminar

EVEN before the Barangay and Sanguniang Kabataan (SK) elections this October, the Cebu City Legal Office already announced its plan to conduct a seminar on graft and corrupt practices and the code of conduct and ethical standards of public officials and employees for the upcoming newly elected officials.

City legal officer Jerone Castillo said the seminar is in coordination with the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman.

Castillo presented the program to the media yesterday during the presentation of projects of every department in city hall for 2013-2016. He said they saw the need to conduct this seminar to prevent public officials from getting involved in administrative and criminal cases.

“It’s better to use a preventive approach first,” said Castillo.

However, since the election results will still be after Oct. 28, Castillo said they will first hold the seminar with the City Hall employees on Sept. 13.

He said even the most simple rules will be discussed during the seminar, such as reporting on time.

“If they are asked to report at 8 a.m., they should report at 8. Kung strikto ang rules sa private sector, dapat mas strikto sa public sector,” said Castillo.

He said they want to hold the seminar on a regular basis.

“We want to do it by batches kay kung gamay ra sila, makahibawo ka kung kinsa gyud ang naminaw (We want to do it by batches because if there are only a few of them, you would know who is really listening),” said Castillo.

LUPON TAGAPAMAYAPA

Aside from the graft and corruption seminar, the city legal office, in collaboration with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, will also train members of the Lupon Tagapamayapa from the different barangays of Cebu City.

They will be taught advanced techniques on arbitration and mediation and will be made to apply their knowledge through practical tests. “It will be as if they are in a moot court,” said Castillo.

Castillo added this is their way of helping decongest the case loads of courts.

“Kung ma-resolve na tanang kaso sa barangay pa lang daan, wala na untay court dockets (If all cases would be resolved in the barangay level, we shouldn’t have had court dockets),” Castillo said. He said they will raffle off five barangays each from the north and south district that will participate in the first training workshop on Sept. 27.

The other barangays will have their turn during the workshops that will be held on the last Friday of the following months.

Castillo said at the end of workshops, they will be awarding the barangay with the ‘Best Lupon Tagapamayapa’ and the ‘Best Lupon Member.’

TRAFFIC VIOLATORS

Castillo also announced to the media about their plan to help the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) in filing cases against traffic violators.

He said one of the traffic violations that infuriates him the most is when jeepney drivers pick up passengers even when the traffic lights turn green.

Among the other plans presented by Castillo included the creation of a mini city legal library, construction of comfort rooms in their office, the review of all city contracts, and their assistance to the City Treasurer’s Office in tax collection through their program dubbed as ‘Program for Collection Enhancement Enforcement and Determination’ or PROCEED. /with a report from correspondent edison delos angeles