General powers and duties of the Council.
Section 14
SEC. 14. General powers and duties of the Council.—Except as otherwise provided by law, and subject to the conditions and limitations thereof, the City Council shall have the following legislative powers: To levy and collect taxes for general and special purposes in accordance with law, including specifically the power to levy, in addition to the provincial rate, real property tax not to exceed one and a half per centum to be applied one-half to the city school fund and one-half to the city general fund. To fix the tariff of fees and charges for all services rendered by the city or any of its departments, branches or offices. To provide for the erection and maintenance or the rental of the necessary buildings for the use of the city. To provide for the establishment and maintenance of free public schools, at least, for primary instruction. To establish or aid in the establishment and maintenance of vocational schools and institutions of higher learning conducted by the National Government or any of its subdivisions and agencies; and, with the approval of the Director of Education, to fix reasonable tuition fees for instruction in the secondary and vocational schools and in those higher institutions supported entirely by the city. To provide for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient police force in the city and make all necessary police ordinances, with a view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants, and persons convicted of violating any of the ordinances of the city. To maintain the court or courts established or which may be established for the city. To establish fire zones, determine the kinds of buildings or structures that may be erected within the limits of said zones, regulate the manner of constructing and repairing, and fix the fees for permits for the construction, repair, or demolition of buildings and structures. To establish and maintain engine house, fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, to regulate the management and use of the same, and to provide personnel therefor. To regulate the use of lights in stables, shops, and other buildings and places, and to regulate and restrict the issuance of permits for the building of bonfires and the use of firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, candles, skyrockets, and other pyrotechnic displays, and to fix the fees for such permits. To make regulations to protect the public from conflagrations and to prevent and mitigate the effects of famine, floods, storms, and other public calamities, and to provide relief for persons suffering from the same. To regulate and fix the amount of the license fees for the following: hawkers, peddlers, hucksters, not including hucksters or peddlers who sell only native vegetables, fruits, or goods, personally carried by the hucksters or peddlers; auctioneers, plumbers, barbers, embalmers, collecting agencies, mercantile agencies, shipping and intelligence offices, private detective agencies, advertising agencies, massagists, tattooers, jugglers, acrobats, hotels, clubs, restaurants, cafes, lodging houses, boarding houses, dealers in large cattle, public billiard tables, laundries, cleaning and dyeing establishments, public warehouses, dance halls, cabarets, circus and other similar parades, public vehicles, race tracks, horse races, bowling alleys, shooting galleries, slot machines, merry-go-rounds, pawnshops, dealers in secondhand merchandise, junk dealers, brewers, distillers, rectifiers, money changers and brokers, public ferries, theaters, theatrical performances, cinematographs, public exhibitions, circuses, and all other performances and places of amusement, and the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat, poultry, fish, game, butter, cheese, lard, vegetables, bread, and other provisions. To tax, fix the license fee for, regulate the business, and fix the location of match factories, blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber yards, ship yards, the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerine, petroleum, or any of the products thereof, and of all other highly combustible or explosive materials, and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety or give rise to conflagrations or explosions, and, subject to the regulations issued by the Bureau of Health in accordance with law, tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, and soap factories. To tax motor and other vehicles, notwithstanding the provisions to the contrary contained in section thirteen of Act Numbered Twenty-five hundred and eighty-seven, as amended, and draft animals not paying any national tax: Provided, That all automobiles and trucks belonging to the National Government or to any provincial or municipal government and automobiles and trucks not regularly kept in the City of Davao shall be exempt from such tax. To regulate the method of using steam engines and boilers, and all other motive powers other than marine or belonging to the Federal or National Government; to provide for the inspection thereof, and for a reasonable fee for such inspection, and to regulate and fix the fees for the licenses of engineers engaged in operating the same. To enact ordinances for the maintenance and preservation of peace and good morals. To regulate and fix the license fees for the keeping of dogs, to authorize their impounding and destruction when running at large contrary to ordinances, and to tax and regulate the keeping or training of fighting cocks. To establish and maintain municipal pounds; to regulate, restrain, and prohibit the running at large of domestic animals, and to provide for the distraining, impounding, and sale of the same for the penalty incurred, and the cost of the proceedings; and to impose penalties upon the owners of said animals for the violation of any ordinance in relation thereto. To prohibit and provide for the punishment of cruelty to animals. To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, coal, and other articles of merchandise. To provide for the laying out, construction, and improvement, and to regulate the use of streets, avenues, alleys, sidewalks, wharves, piers, parks, cemeteries, and other public places; to provide for lighting, cleaning, sprinkling of streets and public places, to regulate, fix license fee for, and prohibit the use of the same for processions, signs, signposts, awning posts, the carrying or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or hand bills, or the flying of signs, flags, or banners, whether along, across, over or from buildings along the same; to prohibit the placing, throwing, depositing, or leaving of obstacles of any kind, offal, garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter or matter liable to cause damage, in the streets and other public places, and to provide for the collection and disposition thereof; to provide for the inspection of, fix the license fees for, and regulate the openings in the same for the laying of gas, water, sewer, and other pipes, the building and repair of tunnels, sewers, and drains, and all structures in and under the same, and the erecting of poles and the stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate crosswalks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name streets without a name and provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting thereon or in the interior of the blocks; to regulate traffic and sales upon the streets and other public places; to provide for the abatement of nuisances in the same and punish the authors or owners thereof ; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use, of bridges, viaducts, and culverts; to prohibit and regulate ball playing, kite flying, hoop rolling, and other amusements which may annoy persons using the streets and public places, or frighten horses or other animals; to regulate the speed of horses and other animals, motor and other vehicles, cars, and locomotives within the limits of the city; to regulate the lights used on all such vehicles, cars, and locomotives; to regulate the locating, constructing and laying of the track of horse, electric, and other forms of railroad in the streets or other public places of the city authorized by law; to provide for and change the location, grade and crossings of railroads, and to compel any such railroads to raise or lower their tracks to conform to such provisions or changes; and to require railroad companies to fence their property, or any part thereof, to provide suitable protection against injury to persons or property, and to construct and repair ditches, drains, sewers, and culverts along and under their tracks, so that the natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall not be obstructed. To provide for the construction of canals and the maintenance of, and regulate, the navigation on water courses within the city, and provide for the cleaning and purification of the same; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use, of public landing places, wharves, piers, docks, and levees, and of those of private ownership; and to provide for and regulate the drainage and filling of private premises, when necessary in the enforcement of sanitary ordinances approved in accordance with law. To fix the charges to be paid by all water craft landing at or using public wharves, docks, levees, or landing places. To provide for the maintenance of waterworks for the purpose of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, and for the purification of the source of supply and the places through which the same passes, and to regulate the consumption and use of the water; to fix and provide for the collection of rents or fees therefor; and to regulate the construction, repair, and use of hydrants, pumps, cisterns, and reservoirs. To provide for the establishment and maintenance and regulate the use, of public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools. Subject to the provisions of regulations issued by the Bureau of Health in accordance with law, to provide for the establishment and maintenance and fix the fees for the use of, and regulate public stables, laundries, and baths, and public markets and slaughterhouses, and prohibit the establishment or operation within the city limits of public markets and slaughterhouses by any person, entity, association, or corporation other than the city. (aa) To regulate, inspect, and provide measures preventing any discrimination or the exclusion of any race or races in or from any institution, establishment, or service open to the public within the city limits, or in the sale and supply of gas or electricity or in the telephone and street-railway service; to fix and regulate charges therefor, where the same have not been fixed by the National Assembly; to regulate and provide for the inspection of all gas, electric, telephone, and street-railway conduits, mains, meters, and other apparatus and equipment, and provide for the condemnation, substitution or removal of the same when defective or dangerous. (bb) To declare, prevent, and provide for the abatement of nuisances; to regulate the ringing of bells and the making of loud or unusual noises; to provide that owners, agents or tenants of buildings or premises keep and maintain the same in sanitary condition, and that in case of failure to do so, after sixty days from the date of serving a written notice, the cost thereof be assessed to owner to the extent of not to exceed sixty per centum of the assessed value, which cost shall constitute a lien against the property, and to regulate or prohibit or fix the license fees for the use of property on or near public ways, grounds, or places, elsewhere within the city, for the display of electric signs, or the erection, or maintenance of billboards or structures of whatever material, erected, maintained, or used for the display of posters, signs, or other pictorial or reading matter, except signs displayed at the place or places where the profession or business advertised thereby is in whole or in part conducted. (cc) To provide for the enforcement of the regulations of the Bureau of Health, and, by ordinance, to prescribe penalties for violations of such regulations. (dd) To extend its ordinances over all waters within the city, over the sea three miles beyond the city limits, and over any boat or other floating structures thereon; and for the purpose of protecting and insuring the purity of the water supply of the city, over all territory within the drainage area of such water supply, and within one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, canal, aqueduct, or pumping station used in connection with the city water service. (ee) To enact all ordinances it may deem necessary and proper for the sanitation and safety, the furtherance of the prosperity, and the promotion of the morality, peace, good order, comfort, convenience, and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, and such others as may be necessary to carry into effect and discharge the powers and duties conferred by this charter; and to fix penalties for the violation of ordinances which shall not exceed a two-hundred-peso fine or six months imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment, for a single offense.