Empathizing with governance

At Issue: The lack of authority by municipal councils to legislate on rightful pieces of legislation.

Our View: Legislative initiative reinstating such authority will return government to governance forthwith.

Since the beginning of our constitutional government 22 years ago, heated debates on the abolition of municipal governments have come and gone, born by a top-heavy mayor’s office.

This budgetary issue focuses on the need to cut down cost of each office in the three senatorial districts.

However, the very institution obligated to engage in forging socio-economic policies at the municipal level is pre-empted of its authority to legislate. It’s a case where we once again, display our forte of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.

This authority was given to legislative delegations through a constitutional amendment. In effect, it has done more harm than good, thus the lack of vision to ensure that government resides with governance.

To wit: The Tinian Gaming Initiative (which became law several years ago) earmarks some 13 percent of its annual fees for disposition by the Tinian Municipal Council. The chairman of the council quizzes whether in fact this body has the authority to dispose of these funds or is it limited to the Tinian Legislative Delegation given the supremacy of laws.

This is one crystal clear example of an anomaly created by the pre-emption of council’s authority to legislate.

We couldn’t agree more with the decentralization being sought by the chairman of the Tinian Municipal Council, Juanita M. Mendiola. It’s a move that should give credence to the real exercise of government.

An initiative reinstating such authority would grant each body real teeth to map-out the socio-economic future of their constituency.
It’s a positive step to enabling leadership at the municipal level to be proactive in wealth and jobs creation. It should give municipal governments the grand opportunity to open-up greater private sector development to cut down their cost of operations. And legislators or legislative delegations should empathize with local concerns of being constitutionally strapped from embracing obligations once the rightful role of municipal councils. It pays to see this issue through their lenses!

To perpetuate the current arrangement is to deny governance the true exercise of government. Lest we forget, government is the people. Let’s empathize with the need to “…give unto Caesar what’s Caesar’s”. Si Yuus Maase`!