Flying sessions
Media
Part of The Local Government Review
- Title
- Flying sessions
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1949
- Subject
- Philippines. Department of Justice.
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- "FLYING SESSlON.S" Republic of the Philippines DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Manila 5th Indorsement December 13, 1946 Respectfully returned to the Honorable, the Secretary of the Interior, Mal1ila. Opinion is requested on whether the request made in Resolution No. 106 of the munidipal Council of Argao, Cebu, for authority to hold council meetings or "flying sessions" in different barrios within the_ jurisdiction of the mu.nicipality comes within the purview of Section 2220 of thl! Revised Admi· nistrative Code, which provides, among other things, that "the municipal coun- cil shall prescribe the time and place of holding its meeting." In thus requiring· the council to pre· scribe the time and "place" of holding its meetings, the manifest intention of the legislature is to limit the designation to only one place, -the purpose be. ing to appraise the people of the place fixed for the meetings, so that they may attend the same whenever they should so desire. "All acts done at an· other than the usual place ·bear the stamp of contrivancy, secrecy and fraud and the court will suspect an improper motive." (Glover, Mun. Corp., 152.) Where such place has been fixed, a municipal council may not legally meet at other places, except in ·cases of necessity or emergency. (2 McQuillin, Municipal C o r p o r a t i o n s , 532-533.) The intention to limit the holding of council meetings to a determinate place is further deducible ~rom the provision requiring the municipal secretary, as clerk of the municipal council, to "keep his office in the build·ing where the municipal council meets, · or at same place convenient thereto, as the co)lncil shall direct" (Sec. 2212 [ c], l<•ev. Adm. .Code) . The "flying sessions," if authorized, would make it difficult for the people in general to know at what particular place the council would meet on a given Page 218 date, with the result that those who may be desirous to attend the meeting would, in effect, be deprived of the opportunity· to do so. With reference to the purpose stated in the resolution, i.e., "to bring the government closer to the people", it may he noted that'the same is amply taken ca.re of by the provision of. Section , 2219-1/2 of the Revised Administrative Code, which provides that each barrio, or rural subdivision with a barrio lieutenant, shall have a Rural Council, whicll is empowered, among other things, to submit to the municipal council such suggestions or recommendations as it may see fit for imprmrements in 1-heir place or for the welfare of the inhabitants thereof. Wherefore, the query above propounded is answered in the negative. (SGD.) ROMAN OZAETA Secretary of Justice --«O»-PRONUNCIAMENTOS SERGIO OSMEN'A-Ours is a go11ernment by law; the splendour of its majesty must never be dimmed in our land. • * ~· EMILIO JACINTO-I beiieve, and do firmly believe, that .the prosperity of a people depend,s upon t'IJ,e people itself. A people, that knows and esteems reason and observes as its rule of con,. duct, goodness and dignity in all its acts, will not place itself a.t the mercy of any tyrant, or submit to force or fraud, or become a tool of the hau.ghty and abominable prevaricator who. rules from the heights of power. * * .. TRINIDA'.D H. PARDO DE TAVE· RA-Through education, we may be sure of awakening the spirit of work, of tolerance, of .peace, of economy, and of respect for the law,-of everything which makes life possible in liberal and democratic institutions, which are not inlimical to but in consonanice with, the ideals of liberty and democracy. THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVIEW