QC mayor seeks special authority to buy rice for disaster relief

FILE PHOTO

MANILA—A Quezon City councilor has drafted an ordinance authorizing Mayor Herbert Bautista to obtain rice from the National Food Authority on credit for relief operations whenever a state of calamity is declared.

Under the draft filed by second district Councilor Ranulfo Ludovica, the mayor would no longer have to ask for the council’s approval whenever he needs to purchase rice from the NFA when calamity strikes.

The councilor said that a Dec. 13, 2013 memorandum from Bautista specifically asked the council to prioritize the passage of such an ordinance after he inked on June 25 last year a memorandum of agreement with the NFA for the purchase of rice on credit “when a state of calamity is declared either by local legislative bodies or the office of the President.”

Ludovica cited provisions of the Local Government Code of 1991 in which the mayor is authorized to enter transactions for the city upon legislative approval and the local chief executive’s mandate to undertake emergency measures necessary during and after a calamity or disaster.

He said that the local council, under the same law, may adopt measures to protect the city residents from the ill-effects of man-made or natural disasters and provide relief to victims.

Ludovica asked his peers on the council to ratify the mayor’s authority for the relief of city residents who may fall victim to any type of calamity or disaster in the future.