EXPLAINER: Powers collide in Cebu dispute with Manila on health protocol: (1) Duterte/IATF order vs Gwen EO, PB ordinance; (2) central authority vs local autonomy; (3) emergency rule vs rule of law.

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CEBU. (Foreground) Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia; (background) Malacañang Palace and Cebu Capitol. (File photos)

THE Zoom-linked appearance of Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia -– along with Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano — before the Senate committee hearing on Covid-19 response Tuesday, June 15 highlighted areas of government authority conflicted by the dispute between Cebu Province and the national task force IATF-MEID (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) and its over-all chairman President Duterte.

Topping it all was the collision between authority of the president and power of a local government official and legislature: President Duterte’s order contained in IATF’s omnibus guidelines, as against Governor Garcia’s executive order and the Provincial Board’s ordinance.

The task force orders one thing: mandatory stay in a quarantine facility for 10-later-reduced-to-seven days, then test for Covid-19 on the seventh day. The Capitol orders another: test upon arrival, release the traveler when found negative within three days, and require quarantine at his home, with a second test on the seventh day.

Malacanang vs LGU

SENATOR Nancy Binay wanted to know what the governor meant (“anong ibig sabihin:”), if Gwen Garcia will not follow the president’s order (“hindi susundin”).

“You’re putting the words in my mouth,” Guv Gwen told the senator who apparently wanted the governor to be categorical.

Binay had pressed, “Technically, you are not going to follow the IATF protocol.” Garcia went only so far as to say, “…Not until the court will rule it as ultra vires (beyond its legal power or authority to act).” Meaning, Governor Gwen would stick to enforce the local health practice until the court would rule the ordinance is invalid.

The governor has always prefaced any statement on official and personal relations with Duterte with her “deep respect” for him and the Cebuanos’ support for him in the 2016 elections. She did so again at the Senate, obviously not wanting to tangle further with the Malacanang occupant.

In citing the “rule of law” and “local autonomy,” however, the LGU powers inevitably collide with Malacanang powers, which Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Ano told the Senate in answer to the governor’s claims.

Ano said the IATF guidelines are “binding and mandatory” and the rules and policies of local government units are expected to conform. A direct answer to Capitol’s position that LGUs have the right to enforce their own health protocols.

In sum, Ano said the president is superior to local governments under his supervision and the presidential EOs can overrule ordinance of local legislatures such as the provincial board or the city or town council.

The DILG chief overlooked the constitutional requirement of local autonomy, the limits on presidential and Department of Health (DOH) supervision, and the authority of Sanggunians to legislate under the Local Government Code and other existing laws.

Limits on presidential authority

SENATOR Panfilo Lacson asked the DILG chief if a presidential executive order can “override” a PB or city or town ordinance, to which Ano said without qualifying, Yes. What Ano probably meant was that you cannot fight the president. But there are parameters to Malacanang’s authority: the Constitution and national laws that govern exercise of power.

The governor said she did not wish to delve into legal questions. But most of her arguments were legal principles: supremacy of the PB ordinance, superiority of national law to an EO, local autonomy and its “Bible,” the Local Government Code.

She must mean that she wouldn’t discuss the law involved, the way it is argued in the courtroom. At the Senate, the governor was mainly talking with the senators but everyone on the digital platform knew he or she was also addressing the public. The governor particularly was sending the message to Cebu voters (your governor is fighting for you) and voters in other parts of the country (this governor could make a good senator too).

How it could play out

THE next significant forum for the conversation between Manila and Cebu on the dispute will be before the Cebu Provincial Board at Capitol social hall any day this week. DOH chief Duque accepted before the senators Governor Gwen’s invitation for experts and IATF members to “revisit” the ordinance that Garcia says has taken the issue out of her hands.

Things could turn out well if (a) the presentation, along with the critique of the Cebu practice the president had ordered, would persuade the PB to change its mind, or (b) both IATF and Capitol come to a compromise. It would not – and this is no speculation – if Malacanang would insist on the IATF protocol, with or without the marketing spiel in Cebu.

Hubris and core belief

A LIKELY obstacle could be the central government’s core belief that LGUs should heel when it blows the whistle and the period-of-emergency mantra that spreading authority or haggling over it is messy and counter-productive.

Part hubris of national leaders and part good sense: why argue in a time of extreme emergency. Recall that in the early days of the pandemic, President Duterte announced the rule and saw to it that Bayanihan to Heal laws contained that provision.

Going for Governor Gwen is the support of House members from Cebu and local town and city mayors and the huge bloc of votes that go with it (1.3 million for Duterte in 2016).

Prospect of bagging votes never fails to tantalize politicians, even more compellingly in high elective seats of power. Sen. Dick Gordon, in speaking out for “the island’s capacity” to manage the epidemic, said he wouldn’t “kiss-lab” Cebu but he did.

SunStar Cebu

SunStar Cebu

The SunStar Cebu, often stylized as Sun•Star Cebu, is a community newspaper in Cebu City, the Philippines. It is the flagship newspaper of the SunStar network of newspapers and is the leading newspaper in both Metro Cebu and the province of Cebu. It is also the oldest of the SunStar newspapers, having been in continuous publication since 1982. Its office is in Kamagayan, Cebu City.

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