Section 29
SEC. 29. Legislative powers.-Any provision of law and executive order to the contrary notwithstanding, the City Board shall have the following powers: a. To make all appropriations for the expenses of the government, and for purposes not specified by law, having in mind the general welfare of the city and its inhabitants. To establish and fix the number of officials and employees of the city and fix the salaries of the city officials and employees whose salaries are not otherwise provided specifically in this Charter, provided that the rates thereof shall not exceed those fixed in the schedule of salaries established by existing law. Increases of salaries of employees shall be made upon prior recommendation by the corresponding department head. b. To impose municipal license taxes or fees upon persons engaged in any occupation or business or exercising privilege within the territorial jurisdiction of the city by requiring them to secure licenses at rates fixed by the City Board, to collect fees and charge for services rendered by the city or otherwise to levy for public purposes just and uniform taxes, licenses or fees: Provided, however, That the City of Surigao may not impose or levy any of the following: 1. Residence tax; 2. Documentary stamp tax; 3. Taxes on business of persons engaged in printing and publication of any newspaper, magazine, review or bulletin appearing at regular intervals and having fixed prices for subscription and sale, and which is not published primarily for the purpose of publishing advertisements ; 4. Taxes on persons operating waterworks, irrigation and other public utilities except electric light, heat and power, motorized tricycles, and public conveyances propelled by muscular power; 5. Taxes on forest products and forest concessions; 6. Taxes on estates, inheritances, gifts, legacies, and other acquisitions mortis causa; 7. Taxes on income of any kind whatsoever; 8. Taxes or fees for the registration of motor vehicles and for issuance of all kinds of licenses or permits for the driving thereof; 9. Customs duties registration, wharfage on wharves owned by the National Government, tonnage on bottoms, and all other kinds of customs fees, charges and dues; 10. Taxes of any kind on banks, insurance companies, and persons paying franchise tax; and 11. Taxes on premiums paid by owners of property who obtain insurance directly with foreign insurance companies, c. To make ordinances and regulations for the conducting of business and the places and premises whereon conducted or to be conducted by the persons subject to taxes, license fees, permit fees and other city impost as provided in subsection (b) hereabove. d. To fix by ordinance, the schedule of maximum rates of fares and charges to be charged by public conveyances operating in the city such as motorized tricycles and rigs, pedicabs and other vehicles propelled by muscular power, the business and operation of which, by this Charter or other laws in relation thereto, the City of Surigao has the power to tax and regulate. e. To regulate the business and fix the location of blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, steam engines, lumber yards, sawmills and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety by giving rise to conflagrations or explosions; to regulate 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 com�bustible or explosive materials. f. To regulate the use of streets and public places by vehicles; to regulate garages and stables and the keeping of carriages, carts, and other conveyances for hire, and to designate stands to be occupied by public vehicles when not in use. g. To provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate the navigation on, canals and water courses within the city and provide for the clearing and purification of the same; unless otherwise provided by law, to provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate the use of public landing places, wharves, piers, docks-and levees, and of those of private ownership. h. Subject to the provisions of the Public Service Act, to fix the charges to be paid by all water and aircraft landing at or using public wharves, docks, levees, landing places owned, operated, managed or controlled by the city. i. To provide for the erection, purchase or rental and maintenance of buildings necessary for the use of the city. j. To establish fire limits and regulate the kinds of buildings and structures that may be erected within said limits and the manner of constructing and repairing the same and fix the fees for the permit for the repair or demolition of buildings and structures in fire zones elsewhere in the city. k. To erect engine houses, and provide fire engines, e carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to provide for the management and use of the same. l. To regulate or restrict the use of lights and electricity in stables, shops and other buildings and places, and to regulate or restrict the building of bonfires and the use of firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, candles, skyrockets and pyrotechnic displays and to fix the fees for such permits. m. To make suitable provisions to insure the public safety from conflagration and mitigate the effects of storm and other public calamities, and to provide relief for persons suffering from the same. n. To provide for the lighting, cleaning and sprinkling of streets and public places; to prevent and remove encroachments and obstructions upon the same; to regulate or prevent the use of the same for processions, signs, signposts, awnings and awning posts; to prohibit the placing, depositing, leaving or throwing of all garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter in the same, and to provide for its collection and disposition; to regulate the opening therein for the laying of gas, water sewers, and drains, and all structures thereunder, the erecting of poles and stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate crosswalks, curbs, and gutters therein; to name and change the names of all streets and public places and provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting thereon; to regulate traffic and sale upon the same; to abate nuisances in the same and punish the ors or owners thereof; to construct, maintain and regulate the use of bridges, viaducts and culverts; to prevent and regulate amusements having tendency to annoy persons using the streets or public places, or to frighten horses and other animals; to regulate the speed of horses other animals, vehicles, and locomotives within the limits of the city. o. To require property owners by ordinance to construct or repair, at their expense, sidewalks along the street or streets adjacent to their lots in accordance with the specifications of the city engineer as to quality, width and grade, and subject to his supervision and approval, providing that, in case of failure or inability of the property owners to comply with the requirement within a! specified period of time after demand, the city engineer shall cause the work to be done and the cost thereof collected as a special assessment from such owners, who may choose to pay the same in full, or in ten equal yearly installments which shall be due and payable to the City of Surigao in the same manner as the annual tax levied on real estate, and shall be made subject to the same penalties for delinquency, and enforceable by the same remedies, as such annual tax; and all said sums and amounts, shall, from the day in which they were assessed constitute lions on the property against which the same were assessed and shall take precedence over any and all other liens which exist upon such property excepting only such as may have been attached as a result of the non-payment of said annual tax. p. Notwithstanding the provisions of any existing law to the contrary, the City Board shall have the exclusive power to provide for the inspection, placing, stringing, attaching, installing, repair and construction of all gas, electric, telegraph and telephone wires, conduits, meters and other apparatus or electrical appliances and the condemnation and correction or removal of the same when dangerous and defective. q. For the purpose of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, to purify the sources of supply and the places through which the same passes, to own, and control the use of water and to fix and collect rents therefor to regulate the construction, repairs, and use of hydrants pumps, cisterns, and reservoirs, and to prevent the waste of water and for the purpose of protecting and insuring the purity and quality of the water supply of the city to extend its ordinance over all territories within the drainage area of such water supply and within one hundred meters of any reservoir, conduits, canal, aqueduct, pumping station or water shed used in connection with the city water service. r. To establish and maintain a city pound and fix the fees for poundage; to regulate, restrain, or prohibit the running at large of domestic animals and dogs, and provide for distraining, impounding, and killing or sale of the same game for the penalty incurred, and the cost of the proceedings; also impose penalties upon the owners of said animals for the violation of any ordinance in relation thereof; but carabaos, horses, mules, asses, and all members of the bovine family shall be disposed of in accordance with the general law. s. To regulate the keeping and use of animals insofar as the same affects the public health and the health of domestic animals. t. To require any land or building which is in an insanitary condition to be cleaned at the expense of the owner or tenants, and upon failure to comply with such an order, have the work undertaken by the city government and assess the expenses upon the land or buildings against the owner thereof. u. To provide for or regulate/and to fill up or require to be filled up to a grade necessary for proper sanitation, any and all land premises which may be declared and duly reported by the City Department of Health as being insanitary by reason of being below such grade or which in the opinion of the Board the public health and welfare may require. v. To construct and keep in repair public drains, sewers and cesspools, and regulate the construction and use of private water closets, privies, sewers, drains and cesspools. w. To prohibit the burial of the dead within the center population of the city and provide for their burial in proper place and in such manner as the Board may determine, subject to the provisions of the general law regulating burial grounds and cemeteries and governing funerals and disposal of the dead. x. To establish or authorize the establishment of, fix the fees for, the use of slaughterhouses and markets, and inspect and regulate the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat, fruits, poultry, milk, fish, vegetable, and other provisions or articles of food offered for sale. y. To enforce the regulations of the Department of Health, and by ordinance to provide fines and penalties for violation of such regulation; to adopt such other measures to prevent the introduction and spread of diseases as may, from time to time, be deemed desirable or necessary. z. To declare, prevent, and abate nuisances. aa. To provide for the recording of births, marriages and deaths. bb. To establish, maintain, and regulate a police force and prescribe the powers and duties of its members. cc. To establish, maintain, and regulate a city prison. dd. To prohibit and provide for the punishment of cruelty to animals. ee. To suppress gambling houses, houses of ill-fame and other disorderly houses; and to prohibit the printing, sale or exhibition of immoral pictures, books, or publications of any description. ff. To prevent and suppress riots, affrays, disturbances, and disorderly assemblies; to punish and prevent intoxication, fighting, quarreling, and all disorderly conduct, and to make and enforce all necessary police ordinances, with the view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants and prostitutes, and persons convicted of violating any city ordinance. gg. To establish, regulate and maintain city departments, prescribe the powers and duties thereof and readjust the same. hh. To construct, erect, and establish a public heat, communication and power supply and installation system, and to that end to purchase, expropriate, or other wise acquire all lands, which may be necessary; and to build, erect, and construct any and all buildings, stations and other structures, and to purchase any or all such machinery, poles, wires, wagons, trucks, or other vehicles, supplies and equipment as may now or hereafter be necessary to the successful operation of such system, as may be provided by law. ii. To maintain and operate any electric light, heat or power supply, communication, and installation system and whenever acquired, to keep the same, repair, alter, increase, extend, improve, enlarge or modify the same or any part thereof; to replace worn or useless parts, machinery, poles, wagons, vehicles, trucks, wires, and other equipment; and to operate, control, and manage the same. jj. For any and all the purposes contemplated in the last two preceding subsections, to enter, if necessary, into contracts for partial or deferred payment; to appoint and employ such officers, clerks, laborers as may be necessary; and appropriate funds of the city for all the purposes aforesaid, kk. To enter into contracts with, and supply electric light, heat, current, and other services to residents, merchants, businessmen, and manufacturers in and about the city at rates and for prices not less than sufficient properly to maintain and operate any such plant or system and to pay for depreciations of the same and for all extensions, improvements, enlargements, alterations, or changes thereof and therein. ll. To enter into a contract of lease, and to rent or lease any electric light, heat or power supply or installation system whether erected, constructed, and established by the City Board, or acquired by it through purchase, grant, or conveyance in any other manner, to any person or persons, or to any corporation for proper and sufficient consideration and subject to the right of supervision and control by the City Board over the operation of such system and over the amount of heat, light, power and current delivered, the character of other services rendered and of the rates and amounts charged therefor. mm. To fix the penalties for violation of ordinances but no single penalty shall exceed a fine of two hundred pesos or imprisonment for six months, or both, but imprisonment shall be imposed in lieu of unpaid fines at the rate of one day's imprisonment for each two pesos and fifty centavos of fine. Persons undergoing imprisonment for violation of ordinance may be required to labor for the period of imprisonment upon works of the city in such manner as may be directed by the City Board. Whenever a person, is imprisoned for non-payment of a fine, he shall be released upon payment of such fine less two pesos and fifty centavos per day for each day that he has been confined. Pending appeal, the defendant shall remain in the custody unless released upon sufficient bail in accordance with the general provisions of law, to await judgment of the appellate court. In case of violation of ordinance about building construction and repair, the City Board, in addition to the penalties authorized in the preceding paragraph, may further impose the penalty of removal or demolition of the building or structure by the owner or by the city at the expense of the owner. nn. To authorize the free distribution of medicines to the employees and laborers whose salary or wage, does not exceed sixty pesos per month or two pesos and fifty centavos per day and of fresh native milk to indigent mothers residing in the city, the, distribution to be made under the direct supervision and control of the Mayor. oo. To fix the tariff of fees and charges for all services rendered by the City5 or any of its departments, branches or offices. pp. To tax, license and regulate boxing, bowling, billiard, pools, horse races, cockpits, roller or ice-skating or any sporting or athletic contest, as well as grant exclusive rights to establishments for this purpose, notwithstanding any existing law to the contrary. qq. To establish and regulate the size, speed, and operation of motor and other public vehicles within the city; to establish bus stops and terminals; and prohibit and regulate the entrance of provincial public utility vehicles into the city except those passing through the city. rr. To make such further ordinances and regulations not repugnant to law as may be necessary to carry into effect and discharge the powers and duties conferred by this Act and such as it shall deem necessary and proper to provide for the health and safety, promote the prosperity, improve the morals, peace and good order, comfort, and conveniences of the city and the inhabitants thereof, and for the protection of property therein, and enforce obedience thereto with such lawful fines or penalties as the City Board may prescribe under the provisions of subsection (mm) of this section, and to exercise all other duties and powers conferred by law.