ILOILO City – The Iloilo City Council is moving to formally bar Vice Mayor Lady Julie Grace Baronda from sponsoring measures, joining floor debates and delivering privilege speeches, invoking a Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) opinion that confines the city’s second-highest elected official to the role of an impartial presiding officer.
Baronda recently raised concerns that six ordinances she proposed have remained pending or failed to advance since she assumed office as vice mayor.
In proposing the adoption of DILG Opinion No. 95, Series of 2025, into the council’s Internal Rules of Procedures (IRP), proponent Councilor Romel Duron cited that Baronda had stepped down from the rostrum on several occasions to advocate measures on the legislative floor.
Duron further anchored his proposal on Section 456 of Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991, which defines the vice mayor’s role as presiding officer and allows the vice mayor to vote only to break a tie.
“The Vice Mayor is the presiding officer, and under the Local Government Code, the Vice Mayor is not a member of the regular legislative block. The Vice Mayor’s legislative voting power is limited to breaking a tie,” Duron said.
Baronda is currently on official leave.
Duron stressed that separating the roles of the presiding officer and regular council members is necessary to preserve impartiality during legislative proceedings.
“The presiding officer must remain impartial. The Vice Mayor cannot be the presiding officer and, at the same time, become an advocate or sponsor of a legislative measure on the floor,” Duron said.
Among Baronda’s proposed measures cited were the Unified Emergency Hotline Ordinance; Cash Incentives/Rewards for Exemplary Ilonggo Graduates Ordinance; Institutionalization of the Official Address, Legislative Mace and Seal of the Iloilo City Council Ordinance; Mandatory Water Break Periods Ordinance; Anti-Prank, Hoax and Non-Emergency Calls to City Hotlines Ordinance; and Iloilo City Volunteerism Program Ordinance.
Duron emphasized that the issue was not necessarily the merits of the measures but the procedure used in advocating them.
“We acknowledge the intent behind these measures, but the manner in which they were defended on the floor by the presiding officer is, in our view, inconsistent with the law and jurisprudence governing the role of the Vice Mayor,” Duron said.
He cited Supreme Court rulings, including Javier vs. Cadiao and Gambog vs. Aguirre, which he said underscore the vice mayor’s role as an impartial presiding officer and distinguish the position from regular members of the legislative body.
Duron also invoked DILG Opinion No. 95, Series of 2025.
“The DILG opinion makes it clear that the presiding officer has to be impartial and has no right to join debates, sponsor legislative measures or deliver privilege speeches,” Duron said.
He rejected the practice of the vice mayor temporarily stepping down from the rostrum to participate in deliberations.
“You cannot simply step down from the rostrum temporarily and assume the role of a regular councilor because the law does not provide that the Vice Mayor can shed the statutory role of presiding officer whenever she wants to participate in a legislative debate,” Duron said.
Duron warned that allowing such participation could raise procedural questions and potentially affect council records.
“If we allow these speeches and manifestations to remain active in our records, it could create legal and procedural complications and affect the institutional integrity of our minutes,” Duron said.
He said the vice mayor could instead ask regular council members to take up measures she wants pursued.
“If the Vice Mayor wants these measures to move forward, the proper course is to ask regular members of the Council to adopt, champion and sponsor them on the floor,” he said.
Duron stressed that incorporating the DILG opinion into the IRP would establish clearer boundaries between the functions of the presiding officer and those of regular councilors.
The proposed resolution has been referred to the Committee on Rules chaired by Councilor Rex Marcus Sarabia for study./PN
