ILOILO City – The Iloilo City Council churned out 1,327 legislative measures — 956 resolutions and 371 ordinances — during its first year in office, with Vice Mayor Lady Julie Grace Baronda crediting close cooperation with the executive branch for helping the legislative body swiftly act on the city government’s priorities.
Baronda said the figures reflected a council that remained active across different committees and sectors while ensuring that measures and requests from the executive branch were promptly acted upon.
“One of the biggest contributions of the City Council is that all requests from the Executive Branch are given high priority, and we do not set them aside,” Baronda said.
She also cited the support extended by the Office of the Mayor as a major factor in the council’s accomplishments, saying the legislative body did not encounter difficulty in securing assistance it needed from the executive branch.
The council passed 956 resolutions and 371 ordinances during its first year, which Baronda said demonstrated the volume of work undertaken by the legislative body.
“Based on the numbers, you can see that we are really a working City Council,” Baronda said.
She stressed that the council’s legislative output was spread across various committees rather than concentrated on only a few areas of governance.
“The ordinances and resolutions we passed were not limited to just one committee. Almost all committees had something passed, whether it was an ordinance or a resolution,” she said.
Baronda said this broad legislative activity showed the council was responding to a wide range of issues affecting Iloilo City residents.
“This shows that the council is addressing all the concerns of the people, not just one aspect or one industry,” she said.
According to the vice mayor, close coordination between the legislative and executive branches has enabled the city government to act on various concerns and move programs and initiatives forward without unnecessary delays.
She stressed, however, that the council’s performance should not be judged solely by the sheer number of measures it approved but also by whether these ordinances and resolutions helped advance city government programs and address the needs of Ilonggos.
Baronda said continued cooperation between the two branches of the city government would remain crucial to the council’s ability to fulfill its legislative mandate and deliver programs and policies responsive to the public./PN
