COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 129 - AN ACT TO AMEND CERTAIN SECTIONS OF COMMONWEALTH ACT NUMBERED FIFTY-EIGHT, ENTITLED "AN ACT CREATING THE CITY OF CEBU" |
Section
1. Subsection (o) of section nine of Commonwealth Act Numbered
Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "(o) To exempt,
with the concurrence of the Director of Education, deserving poor
pupils from the payment of school fees or of any part thereof." Section2. Section twelve of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amend to read as follows: "Section12. Constitution and
organization of Municipal Board. – The Municipal Board shall be the
legislative body of the city, and shall consist of eight elective
members who shall hold office for three years. The members of the Board
shall elect each year from among their members a president, who for one
year shall preside at all meetings of the Board at which he is present.
In his absence, the Board shall elect one of its members as temporary
presiding officer. The president shall sign all ordinances, all
resolutions and motions directing the payment of money or creating
liability, enacted or adopted by the Board. In case of sickness or
absence of any member of the Board, or if for any reason it becomes
necessary to maintain a quorum, the President of the Philippines may
make a temporary appointment until the return to duty of the sick or
absent member. During the period of such temporary appointment the
person receiving the same shall possess all the rights and perform all
the duties of a member of the Board. "The members of the Board shall
receive a per diem of ten pesos for each day of attendance on a session
of the Board." Section3. The third paragraph of section thirteen of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Elections for members of the
Municipal Board shall be held on the date of the general triennial
election, and elected members shall take office on the sixteenth day of
July next following their election, and upon qualifying, shall hold
office until their successors are elected and qualified. The eight
candidates receiving the greatest number of votes at any election shall
be declared elected, and any tie for the eighth place shall be broken
by the President of the Philippines designating from among the
candidates tied for such place the one to be declared elected. If any
person so elected is ineligible to hold office, or if for any reason
there should be failure to elect one or more members, no special
election shall be called, but the vacancy shall be filled for the term
by the President of the Philippines with the approval of the Commission
on Appointments. Vacancies in the office of member occurring after
taking office shall be filled for the unexpired term in like manner. Section4. Section sixteen of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section16. Method of transacting
business by Board – Veto – Authentication and publication of
ordinances. – Unless the Secretary of the Interior orders otherwise,
the Board shall hold two ordinary sessions for the transaction of
business during each week on days which it shall fix by resolution, and
such extraordinary sessions, not exceeding thirty during any one year,
as may be called by the Mayor. It shall sit with open doors unless
otherwise ordered by an affirmative vote of four members. It shall keep
a record of its proceedings and determine its rules of procedure not
herein set forth. Four members of the Board shall constitute a quorum
for the transaction of business, and four affirmative votes shall be
necessary for the passage of any ordinance, resolution, or motion. The
ayes and noes shall be taken and recorded upon the passage of all
ordinances, upon all resolutions or motions directing the payment of
money or creating liability, and at the request of any member, upon any
other resolution or motion. Each proposed ordinance shall be published
in two newspapers of general circulation in the city and shall not be
discussed or enacted by the Board until after the third day following
such publication. Each ordinance enacted by the Board, and each
resolution or motion directing the payment of money or creating
liability, shall be forwarded to the Mayor for his approval. Within ten
days after the receipt of the ordinance, resolution or motion, the
Mayor shall return it with his approval or veto. If he does not return
it within that time, it shall be deemed to be approved. If he returns
it with his veto, his reasons therefor in writing shall accompany it.
It may then be again enacted by the affirmative votes of five members
of the Board, and again forwarded to the Mayor for his approval, and if
within ten days after its receipt he does not again return it with his
veto, it shall be deemed to be approved. If within said time he again
returns it with his veto, it shall be forwarded forthwith to the
Secretary of the Interior for his approval or disapproval, which shall
be final. The Mayor shall have the power to veto any particular item or
items of an appropriation ordinance, or of an ordinance, resolution or
motion directing the payment of money or creating liability, but the
veto shall not affect the item or items to which he does not object.
The item or items objected to shall not take effect except in the
manner heretofore provided in this section as to ordinances,
resolutions and motions returned to the Board with his veto. "Each approved ordinance shall be
sealed with the city seal, signed by the presiding officer of the Board
and the secretary, and recorded in a book kept for that purpose; shall
be published in two newspapers of general circulation in the city
within ten days after its approval; and shall take effect and be in
force on and after the twentieth day following its publication, if no
date is fixed in the ordinance. With the exception of ordinances vetoed
by the Mayor when said veto has not been sustained by the Secretary of
the Interior, all ordinances approved by the Municipal Board shall be
forwarded to the Provincial Board of the Province of Cebu for approval.
In case of disapproval, the Municipal Board or the city Mayor may
appeal to the Department of the Interior, the action of which shall be
final." Section5. Subsection (n) of section seventeen of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows. "(n) To tax
vehicles and draft animals not paying any insular tax Section6. Section twenty-one of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section21. Appointment and
removal of officials and employees. – With the approval of the
Commission on Appointments of the National Assembly, the President of
the Philippines shall appoint the fiscal of the city and his assistant,
the judge of the Municipal Court and, in case of a temporary vacancy on
such court, an acting judge therefor, the city engineer and his
assistant, the chief of police and his assistant, the chief of the fire
department and his assistant, the city treasurer, the city assessor,
and the city superintendent of schools. Subject to the provisions of
the Civil Service Law, the Mayor shall appoint all other officers and
employees of the city whose appointment is not otherwise provided for
by law. The Mayor may suspend, and remove, any appointive city officer
or employee not appointed by the President of the Philippines and may
recommend to the President of the Philippines the suspension or removal
of any city officer or employee appointed by him. Any such suspension
or removal by the Mayor shall be appealable to the Department Head,
whose determination of the matter shall be final." Section7. The first paragraph of section thirty-eight of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section38. Regular and acting
judges of Municipal Court. – There shall be a Municipal Court for the
City of Cebu, for which a judge shall be appointed, to be known as
judge of the Municipal Court. He shall receive a salary of three
thousand six hundred pesos per annum." Section8. Section fifty-two of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section52. List of taxable real
estate, how made – Examination of witnesses and register of deeds
records. – The city assessor shall make the list of the taxable real
estate in the city, and the names of the owners shall be arranged in
the order of the lot and block numbers with a brief description
opposite each such name of the property owned by such owners and the
cash value thereof. In making this list, the city assessor shall take
into consideration any sworn statement made by the owners of the
property, but shall not be prevented thereby from considering other
evidence on the subject and exercising his own judgment in respect
thereto. For the purpose of completing this list, he and his authorized
representatives are empowered to enter upon the real estate for the
purpose of examining and measuring the same, and to summon witnesses,
administer oaths to them, and subject them to examination concerning
the ownership and the amount of real estate and its cash value. It
shall be the duty of the city assessor so far as is necessary, to
examine the records of the office of the register of deeds showing the
ownership of real estate in the city." Section9. Section fifty-five of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section55. Action in case real
estate has escaped taxation. – If it shall come to the knowledge of the
city assessor that any taxable real estate in the city has escaped
listing, it shall be his duty to list and value the same at the time
and in the manner provided in the next succeeding section and to charge
against the owner thereof the taxes due for the current year and for
all other years since the original assessment under the city charter
was made, and the taxes thus assessed shall be legal, and collectible
by all the remedies herein provided, and if the failure of the city
assessor to assess such taxes at the time when they should have been
assessed was due to any fault or negligence on the part of the owner of
such property, then penalties shall be added to such back taxes as
though they had been assessed at the time when they should have been
assessed." Section10. Section fifty-eight of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section58. Time and manner of
appealing to board of tax appeals. – In case the Municipal Board, or
any owner of real estate or his authorized agent, shall feel aggrieved
by any decision of the city assessor under the preceding section of
this article, such Board, owner or agent may, within twenty days after
the taxpayer receives notice of such decision, appeal to the board of
tax appeals The appeal shall be perfected by filing a written notice of
the same with the city assessor and it shall be the duty of that
officer forthwith to transmit the appeal to the board of tax appeals
with all written evidence in his possession relating to such assessment
and valuation." Section11. The first paragraph of section fifty-nine of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section59. Constitution and
compensation of board of tax appeals. – The board of tax appeals shall
be composed of five members who shall be appointed by the President of
the Philippines with the approval of the Commission on Appointments on
the first day of September of each year in which the first regular
session of the National Assembly shall begin, three of whom shall be
owners of real estate in the city of which number, two shall be
selected from a list of ten persons to be submitted to the President of
the Philippines by the "Asociacion de Proprietarios de Cebu," which
list shall be submitted to him by the said association not later than
the fifteenth day of August of the same year. Should the said list not
be submitted by the aforesaid association within the time fixed herein,
the President of the Philippines shall select such two members in his
own discretion." Section12. The first and second paragraphs of section sixty-two of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight are hereby amended to read as follows: "Section62. Annual tax and
penalties – Extension, remission of the payment of the tax. – An annual
tax of seven-eighths of one per centum on the assessed value of all
real estate in the city subject to taxation as hereinbefore provided is
hereby levied. All taxes shall be due and payable on the first day of
January of each year, and if any taxpayer shall fail to pay the taxes
assessed against him on or before the thirtieth day of June of the year
for which such taxes are due, he shall be delinquent in such payment
and shall be subject, as a penalty for such delinquency, to an
additional tax of twenty per centum of the amount of the original tax
if both the original and the additional tax be paid during the first
six months of such delinquency, and if not so paid, to an additional
tax of twenty-five per centum of the amount of the original tax; the
additional tax to be collected at the same time and in the same manner
as the original tax. "At the option of the taxpayer,
the tax due for any year may be paid in two installments, the first of
such installments to consist of four-eighths of one per centum of the
assessed valuation of the property and the second to consist of the
remainder of the tax for the year. In such cases the first installment
must be paid on or before the thirtieth day of June of the year for
which the tax is due, and the second may be paid at any time prior to
the first day of January of the following year, but if the first
installment of the tax for any year is not paid on or before the
thirtieth day of June of such year, then the whole of that year's tax
shall be delinquent and the penalty due thereon as hereinbefore
provided. If any taxpayer, having paid the first installment of his tax
for any year, shall fail to pay the second installment thereof before
the first day of January of the following year, the penalty collected
shall be twenty per centum of the amount of such second installment
during the first six months of said following year, and thereafter
twenty-five per centum of such amount." Section13. Section seventy-six of Commonwealth Act Numbered Fifty-eight is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section76.Power to levy special assessments for certain purposes. – The Municipal
Board may, by ordinance duly approved, provide for the levying and
collection, by special assessments of the real estate comprised within
the district or section of the city especially benefited, of the cost,
or a part thereof not less than sixty per centum, of laying out,
opening, constructing, straightening, widening extending, grading,
paving, curbing, walling, deepening or otherwise establishing,
repairing, enlarging, or improving public avenues, roads, streets,
alleys, sidewalks, parks, plazas, bridges, landing places, wharves,
piers, docks, levees, reservoirs, waterworks, water mains, water
courses, esteros, canals, drains, and sewers, including the cost of
acquiring the necessary land. Within the meaning of this article, all
real estate comprised within the district benefited, except lands or
buildings owned by the United States of America, the Commonwealth of
the Philippines, or the City of Cebu, shall be subject to the payment
of the special assessment, based upon the valuation of such real estate
as shown by the books of the city assessor, or its present value as
fixed by said officer in the first instance if the property does not
appear of record in his books according to the valuation whereof the
special tax has to be made, computed and assessed." Section14. This Act shall take effect upon its approval. |