Section 28. General powers and duties of the city council.— Any provision of law and executive orders to the contrary notwithstanding, the city council shall have the following legislative powers:

(1) To provide for the levy and collection of taxes for general and specific purposes, including the power to institute the necessary proceedings for the distraint of personal property or levy on real property sufficient for the satisfaction of delinquencies in the payment of business taxes, license fees, and other imposts due to the city; and apply the same to the payment of city expenses in accordance with appropriation;

(2) To make all appropriations for the government of the city, and to fix the number of officials and employees of the city and approve their salaries or wages not otherwise provided for in this Charter;

(3) To fix the tariff of fees and charges for all services rendered by the city or any of its department, branches and offices;

(4) To provide for the construction, purchase, or the rental, in case of need, and maintenance of the necessary buildings for the use of the city;

(5) To provide for the establishment and maintenance, or aid in the maintenance of primary, intermediate, secondary, trade, agricultural, technical and vocational schools and institutions of higher learning, whether conducted by the National Government or not, and to acquire by purchase, donations, or in any manner whatsoever, real estate necessary thereto and to construct purchase, lease, any building or buildings to carry out the above purpose;

(6) To fix reasonable tuition fees, matriculation fees and other fees for instruction in such schools maintained, supported or aided by the city;

(7) To maintain the city courts established by law which shall have jurisdiction over all criminal and civil cases under the ordinances of the city, and such further jurisdiction as may herein or hereafter be conferred;

(8) To provide for the establishment and maintenance of a police force, for the maintenance of law and order in the city and prescribe the powers and duties of its members and make all necessary police ordinances; and to establish, construct, maintain and regulate a city jail, or otherwise to arrange for the confinement of city prisoners in the provincial jail;

(9) To provide for the prohibition and suppression of riots, affrays, disturbances and disorderly assemblies; houses of ill-fame and other disorderly houses; gambling houses, gambling and all fraudulent devices for the purpose of obtaining money or profit; prostitution, vagrancy, intoxication, fighting, quarreling, and all disorderly conduct; the printing, circulation, exhibition or sale or obscene pictures, books or publications, and for the maintenance and preservation of peace and good morals;

(10) To provide for and maintain a fire department and to establish, acquire and maintain engine hose, fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires and to regulate the management and use of the same;

(11) To establish fire zones, determine the kinds of buildings or structures that may be erected within their limits, regulate the manner of constructing and repairing the same, and fix the fees for permits for the construction, repair, or demolition of buildings and structures.

(12) To regulate the use of lights and electricity of 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, candles, torpedoes, skyrockets and other pyrotechnic displays, and to fix the fees for such permits;

(13) To make regulations to protect the public from conflagration and to prevent and mitigate the effects of fire, famine, floods, storms, and other public calamities, and provide relief for persons suffering from same;

(14) In the public interest, to regulate the cutting of trees, whether on public or private lands that are located in watershed areas within the jurisdictional limits of the City of Dumaguete, and to require that owners of private lands that are deforested in such watershed areas allow the city authorities to enter upon with private lands to resoil erosion, or acquire such lands by expropriations;

(15) To establish or authorize the establishment of, fix the fees for the use of, slaughterhouses and markets, provide for their veterinary and sanitary inspection and inspect, regulate the keeping, preparation and sale of meat, fruits, poultry, game, milk, fish, butter, cheese, lard, vegetables, bread and other provisions or articles of food offered for sale; to adopt such measures to prevent the introduction and spread of disease as may, from time to time, be deemed desirable or necessary, and to permit and regulate or prohibit the establishment or operation within city limits of public markets and slaughterhouses by any person, entity, association or corporation other than the city;

(16) To establish and maintain municipal pounds; to regulate, restrain, and prohibit the running at large of domestic animals, and 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;

(17) To require all persons, firms, corporations or associations doing business in Dumaguete City to pay their income taxes in the city;

(18) To tax, regulate and fix the license fees for the following: hawkers, peddlers, hucksters, auctioneers, plumbers, barbers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, silversmiths, embalmers, manicurists, hair dressers, massagists, tattooers, jugglers, painters, artists, acrobats, wrestlers, boxers, professional judo players, fortune tellers, magicians, jockeys, promoters of sporting and athletic events and amusement exhibitions, money changers, commercial and other brokers or agents, lawyers, medical practitioners, land surveyors, architects, public accountants, civil, electrical, chemical, mechanical, mining, marine, or refrigeration engineers, radio engineers and technicians, psychiatrists, veterinarians, dentists and dental surgeons, opticians and optometrists, insurance agents, and sub-agents business agents and business consultants, exporters, importers, indentors, professional appraisers or connoisseurs of tobacco or other domestic or foreign products, music teachers, piano tuners, nurses, midwives, electrical contractors, building contractors, dealers in gravel and sand, advertising agents and solicitors, physical culture instructors, chiropodists, real estate dealers and brokers, persons engaged in the transportation of passengers or freight for hire, milliners, interior decorators, printers and bookbinders, sweepstakes and lottery agents, bakers, photographers, photo engravers, dormitory, boarding house, loading house and hotel operators, beauticians, mechanics, watch repairers, electricians, waiters and waitresses, dancing instructors, bartenders, bodyguards and security guards, nightclub operators and managers, public stenographers and typists: Provided, That persons exercising their professions or occupation only as salaried employees and not as independent practitioners may be exempt from the municipal occupation tax herein prescribed; and to tax, regulate and fix the license fees on manufacturers and dealers of: batteries for motor vehicles, jewelries, embroideries, sails or awnings or both, rope, paper, leather goods, including shoes, slippers, sandals, harnesses, valises or bags, mosquito nets, laces, veils, curtains, sporting goods, rubber goods, plastic and celluloid products, hardware including glassware, cooking utensils, electrical goods and construction materials, chemical products including drugs, perfumes, toilet articles, paints, dyes and inks, textiles, shell lamps or lampshades or both, statuettes or tombstones or both, sacks, musical instruments, furniture of all kinds including rattan goods, wire, brass beds, or both, clothing, hats, eye-glasses or optical goods or both, fertilizers and buttons, poultry feed; manufacturers and dealers in coffee, chocolate, candles, sweets, and other similar products, ice cream, ice drops and milk.

(19) To tax, regulate and fix the license fees on collecting agencies, mercantile agencies, private radio, telephone, and telegraph communication establishments, shipping and airline firms and shipping agencies, intelligence offices, private detective and police agencies, security guard and watchman agencies, shooting galleries, hotels, dormitories, lodging houses, boarding houses, restaurants, cafes, sari-sari stores, refreshment parlors and places, tailor shops, flower shops, groceries, bakeries, cleaning and dyeing establishments, laundries, beauty parlors, the letting and subletting of lands and buildings, whether used for commercial, industrial or residential purposes, clubs, pawnshops, theaters, cinematographs, theatrical performances and similar places of amusement and entertainment, circuses, merry-go-rounds and similar riding devices, slot machines, massage clinics; and to tax, fix the license on, regulate and fix the location of boarding stables, livery garages or stables, public tools tables, public billiard tables, race tracks, horse racing clubs and tracks, dog racing tracks, boxing stadiums, funeral parlors, printing presses, repair shops for automobiles, trucks and other motor vehicles, pianos, auto-pianos, radios, phonographs, typewriters, refrigerators, electric and gas ranges, electric washing machines, calculators, adding machines, air conditioning units, kitchen stoves, mimeographing machines and similar apparatuses, tire-repair and vulcanizing shops, welding shops, and shops for the charging and re-charging of batteries, bottling plants, distillers, brewers, rectifiers, machineries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, toothpaste laboratories and factories, soap factories, sawmills, lumberyards, shipyards, ship-building establishments, boatyards, factories for the making or manufacture of firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, skyrockets and similar products, and other establishments likely to endanger the public safety or give rise to conflagrations or explosions;

(20) To tax, regulate, fix the amount of license fees for the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, benzine, turpentine, hemp, alcohol, gasoline, lumber, logs, copra, and copra products, soft drinks and beverages, beer, wines, cigarettes and cigars, cotton, nitroglycerine, petroleum or any of the products thereof, asphalt, rubber, and all other highly combustible or explosive materials;

(21) To tax, regulate, and fix the amount of license fees for keeping, preparation, and the sale of meat, poultry, fish, game, other sea products, butter, cheese, margarine, lard, vegetables, fruits, bread and other provisions;

(22) To tax, regulate, and fix the license fees on dealers in general merchandise, motor vehicles, tractors and/or their accessories, and other kinds of machines; corn mills and grinders, rice mills, copra dealers including coconut oil, tobacco dealers, dealers in hogs and large cattle, junk dealers, “surplus goods” dealers, dealers in second hand materials and merchandise, scrap iron, arms and ammunitions, electrical goods, hardware, paints, construction materials, office equipment and supplies, machinery of all kinds, sporting goods, automobiles and trucks parts, except those dealers who may expressly be subject to the payment of like or similar municipal tax under the provisions of this section;

Dealers in general merchandise shall be classified as

For purposes of this section, the term “general merchandise” shall include poultry and livestock, agricultural products, fish and other allied products;

(23) To tax, license, permit and regulate wagers or betting by public on boxing, sipa, bingo, bowling, billiards, horse or dog races, bicycle races, cockpits, Jai-alai, roller or ice-skating or any sporting or athletic contest as well as grant exclusive rights to establishments for this purpose, and to tax, license, prohibit or regulate and fix the location of the establishment and operation of nightclubs, dance halls, cabarets, bars, dancing schools, pavilions, saloons, billiard and pool halls, bowling alleys, circuses and other places of amusement. Any and all laws, executive orders existing at the time this Revised Charter shall take effect relating to any matter covered by this section shall become inoperative within the city insofar as they are inconsistent or in conflict with any city ordinances authorized hereby and adopted hereunder for the regulations of any such matters;

(24) To impose tax on motor and other vehicles, 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 shall be exempt from such tax.

(25) To regulate the method of using steam, electric, gasoline, kerosene, or diesel engines and boilers, and all other motor power other than marine or belonging to the Government of the Philippines; to provide for the inspection thereof; and fix a reasonable fee for such inspection and to regulate and fix the fees for the licenses of the engineers engaged in operating the same;

(26) To tax, fix the license fees of, and regulate or prohibit the sale, dealing or trading in, the disposal of intoxicating and alcoholic liquors, malt beverages, beer, wines and mixed and fermented liquors, whether imported or locally manufactured, including tuba, basi, tapuy, and other native wines offered for sale, and to tax motor and other vehicles and draft animals operating within the city: Provided, That all automobiles and trucks belonging to the Philippine Government shall be exempt from such tax;

(27) To tax, license, regulate, and fix the location of any other business, trade, profession or occupation not specially mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, being conducted or which may be conducted within the city; and to impose a license fee upon all persons engaged in the same and who enjoy privileges in the city, and to impose a tax on the sale or real property including percentage taxes based on the gross sale and receipts, on the sale and storage of all products and commodities being sold, bartered, purchased, received, delivered, transferred, exchanged or disposed in any other manner, within the city and to impose a tax on all products and commodities manufactured or produced in the city; and to levy for public purposes just and uniform taxes, licenses or fees, except that the city may not levy or impose any of the following: (a) income taxes; (b) taxes on estates, inheritances, gifts, legacies, and other acquisitions mortis causa; 3. customs duties and customs dues; 4. documentary stamp taxes; and 5. taxes on the business of persons engaged in the printing and publication of any newspaper magazine, review, or bulletin appearing at regular intervals and having fixed prices for subscription and sale which is not published primarily for the purpose of publishing advertisements.

A tax ordinance shall go into effect on the fifteenth day after its passage, unless the ordinance shall provide otherwise: Provided, However, That the Secretary of Finance shall have authority to suspend the effectivity of any ordinance within one hundred and twenty days after its passage, if, in his opinion, the tax or free therein levied or imposed is unjust, excessive, oppressive, or confiscatory, and when the said Secretary exercises this authority the effectivity of such ordinance shall be suspended. In such event the city council may appeal the decision of the Secretary of Finance to the court during the pendency of which case the tax levied shall be considered as paid under protest;

(28) To prohibit or 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;

(29) To prohibit and provide for the prevention of cruelty to animals;

(30) To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, coal, and other articles of merchandise;

(31) To provide for the establishment and maintenance and regulate the use of public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools; to regulate the construction and use of private sewers, drains, cesspools, water closets and privies; to provide for the establishment and maintenance of waterworks, for the purpose of supplying water to the inhabitants of the city, and for the purification of the source of water supply and 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 therefor, and to regulate the construction, repair, and use of hydrants, pumps, cisterns and reservoirs. Any and all waterworks system provided for or undertaken by the City Government shall exclusively belong to it, such that the city shall have exclusive control, direction and supervision over the same; and all laws and executive orders and circulars issued by the Office of the President making reference to the ownership, possession, control and operation of waterworks and sewers shall not be applicable to the City of Dumaguete;

(32) To let the privileges of establishing and maintaining public utilities such as telephone systems; gas, public lighting systems, vehicles, etc. to private parties by licenses granted upon such terms as shall be fixed by the City Council;

(33) To regulate and fix reasonable fees for the sale and supply of gas, electricity, telephone, street, railways, and other public utility services within the city;

(34) 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; to regulate and provide for the inspection of all gas, electric, telephone, and street-railway conduits, mains, meters, and other apparatus, and provide for the condemnation, substitution, or removal of the same when defective or dangerous;

(35) To provide for the laying out, construction, improvement and maintenance, including lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets, avenues, boulevards, alleys, sidewalks, wharves, piers, parks, cemeteries, and other public places and to regulate the use thereof; to provide for the construction and maintenance and regulate the use of bridges, viaducts and culverts; to close any city road, street, alley, boulevard, avenue, park, or square. Property thus withdrawn from public servitude may be used or conveyed for any purpose for which other real property belonging to the city may be lawfully used or conveyed;

(36) To regulate traffic and sales upon the streets and other public places of the city; to provide for the abatement of nuisances in the same and punish the authors or owners thereof; to prohibit the placing, throwing, depositing or leaving of obstacles of any kind, garbage, refuse or other offensive matter, or matter liable to cause damage, in any street or other public place; and to provide for the collection and disposition thereof; to regulate, fix license fees for, or prohibit the use of the same for parades, processions, signs, signposts, awnings, awning posts; and for the carrying or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or handbills, or the flying of signs, flags, or banners, whether along, across, over or from buildings along the same; to provide for the inspection of, fix the license fees for, and regulate opening in the streets or other public places 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 stringing of wires therein; to provide for and regulate the numbering of houses and lots fronting thereon or in the interiors of the blocks; to regulate and prevent 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 and other animals, vehicles, cars and locomotive within the limits of the city; to regulate the lights used on all such vehicles; to regulate the size, speed and operation of taxicabs, buses and other public vehicles within the city, and to designate stands, bus stops and terminals to be occupied by public vehicles when not in use; to regulate the location and construction of the track of all 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 crossing of railroads, and to compel any such railroad to raise or lower its 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 natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall not be obstructed;

(37) To fill up, or require to be filled up, at the owner’s expense, to a grade necessary for proper sanitation any and all lands and premises when necessary in the enforcement of sanitary ordinances and adopted in accordance with law;

(38) By ordinance, to require property owners 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: Provided, That, in case of failure or inability of the property owner to comply with the requirements within the specified period of time after demand, the city engineer shall construct the work to be done and the cost thereof collected as a special assessment from such owner who may choose to pay the same in full or in ten equal yearly installments which installments shall be due and payable to the city in the same manner as the annual tax levied on real estate, and shall be made subject to the same penalties for delinquencies and enforceable by the same remedies as such annual tax and all said sums and amounts shall from the day on which they were assessed constitute a lien upon the property against which they were assessed and shall take precedence over any and all other liens which may exist upon such property except only such as may have been attached as a result of the non-payment of the said annual tax;

(39) To acquire, take, condemn, or appropriate more land and property than is needed for actual construction in connection with any capital project or improvement herein authorized the additional land or property so authorized to be acquired, taken, condemned, or appropriated being no more than sufficient to form suitable building sites abutting on such improvement. After so much of the land or property has been appropriated for the improvement as is needed therefor, the remainder may be sold or leased. The City Council is hereby further authorized and empowered to provide by ordinance the manner in which the power herein created may be exercised;

(40) 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 of written notice, the cost thereof to be assessed to the 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, or elsewhere within the city, for a 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;

(41) To provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate the navigation on, canals and water courses within the city, and to provide for the clearing and purification of the canals; to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use of public landing places, wharves, piers, docks, levees, and airfields, and of those of private ownership; to fix the charges to be paid by all watercraft landing at or using public or private wharves, docks, levees, or landing places as well as all aircraft landing in airfields within the City of Dumaguete. To undertake and carry out the reclamation of submerged land from the sea adjoining the city limits at the expense of the city, the area thus reclaimed to belong exclusively to the city, or to cause to be undertaken by private contractors such reclamation work on terms and conditions approved by the City Council and the Mayor;

(42) To provide for plans and maps of the whole or any portion of the city which bears relation to the planning of the city and to make changes in, additions to and extensions of, such plans or maps when deemed advisable. Such maps and plans shall show the recommendation for the location and extension of streets, alleys, highways, viaducts, bridges, parkways, parks, playgrounds and other public grounds and public improvements or public buildings and other public properties and other public utilities, whether publicly or private owned, for water, light, sanitation, transportation, communication, power and other purposes; and for the removal, relocation, widening, extension, narrowing, vacating, abandonment or change of use of any of the foregoing public places, works, buildings or utilities. Such maps and plans may also include the division of the city into zones or districts, of the limitation and regulation of the height, bulk (including percentage or lot occupancy and setback building lines), and use of buildings and other structures and premises in such zone or district. It shall also provide for the control of platting and land subdivision. It is expressly provided that laws and executive orders existing at the time this Charter shall take effect relating to matters covered by this subsection, shall become inoperative within the City of Dumaguete to the extent of any conflict with any city ordinance authorized hereby and adopted hereunder for the regulation of any such matters;

(43) To impose penalties for the violation of official maps, subdivision control, zone regulations, established in accordance with law, or adopted by ordinance;

(44) Subject to the rules and regulations issued by the Director of Health in accordance with law, to provide for, the establishment, maintenance and regulation and fix the fees for the use of public stables, laundries and bath;

(45) To acquire private lands in the city and to subdivide the same into lots for sale on easy terms to city residents, giving first priority to the bona fide tenants or occupants of said lands and second priority to laborers and low-salaried employees. For the purposes of this subsection, the city may raise the necessary funds by appropriations of general funds, by securing loans or by issuing bonds, and if necessary, may acquire the lands through expropriation proceedings;

(46) To construct, erect and establish a public light, heat, and power supply and installation system; and to this end, to purchase, expropriate or otherwise acquire all lands, buildings, stations and other structures, and to purchase any or all such machinery, poles, wires, trucks, or other vehicles, supplies and equipment as may now or hereafter be necessary to the successful operation of such system;

(47) To maintain and operate any electric light, heat, or power supply and installation system, however acquired; to keep the same in repair; to alter, increase, extend, improve and enlarge or modify the same or any part thereof; to replace worn or used parts, machinery, poles, animals, vehicles, trucks, wires and other equipment, and to operate, control and manage the same;

(48) 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 sell bonds to raise money for such projects; and to appropriate funds of the city for all purposes aforesaid;

(49) To enter into contracts with and to supply electric light, heat, current and other services to residents, merchants, businessmen, and manufacturers in and about the city at rates and at prices not less than sufficient to properly maintain and operate any such plant or system and to pay for the depreciation in the same and for all extension, improvements, enlargements, alterations or changes thereof and therein;

(50) To enter into a contract of lease and to rent or lease any electric light, heat and power supply or installation system, whether erected, constructed and established by the city council, or acquired by it through purchase, grant, or conveyance or in any other manner, to any person or persons or to any corporations, for proper and sufficient consideration and subject to the right of supervision and control by the city council over the operation of such system and over the amount of heat, power and current handled and the character of other services rendered and of the rates and amounts charged thereof;

(51) To establish and maintain or aid in the establishment and maintenance of charitable institutions in the city; to authorize the free distribution of medicines to the employees and laborers of the city whose salaries or wages do not exceed the maximum to be fixed by ordinance, and of evaporated or fresh native milk to indigent mothers residing in the city, and of bread, rice, corn and light meals and medicines to indigents residing in the city, the distribution to be under the direct supervision and control of the Mayor. In order to raise funds for charitable purposes, to conduct lotteries not oftener than once a month: Provided, That, fifty per centum of the proceeds shall be used exclusively for the establishment or aid in the establishment or contributions to charitable organizations within the city and for any other charitable purposes as the city council may determine: And provided, further, That the books of accounts kept for the above purposes shall be audited by the Auditor General or his representative;

(52) To provide for the enforcement of the rules and regulations issued by the Director of Health, and by ordinance to prescribe penalties for violations of such rules and regulations;

(53) Upon the recommendation of the mayor to issue or float bonds with which to carry out the various projects of the city under such terms and conditions as the city council may determine;

(54) To grant fishing and fishery privileges subject to the provisions of the Fisheries Act;

(55) To regulate, restrict or prohibit by ordinance the carrying of firearms within the jurisdictional limits of the city;

(56) To establish, regulate and maintain city departments, divisions and offices and prescribe the powers and duties thereof, upon the recommendation of the Mayor, make such reorganization or readjustment of the duties of the several departments, divisions or offices or create and transfer functions from one department, division or office to another department, division or office as public interest may demand, abolish any such department, or any division or office assigned thereto, or consolidate the same with any other department, division or office, or delegate these powers to the Mayor by ordinance;

(57) To provide for the annual levy and collection of real property taxes at a rate or rates not to exceed the maximum rates fixed by Section seventeen of this Charter;

(58) To fix the date of the holding of an annual fiesta in the city and to alter, not oftener than once in three years, the date fixed for the celebration thereof; to fix the date of the holding of an annual fiesta in each district or barrio and to alter, not oftener than once in three years, the date fixed for the celebration thereof;

(59) To require by virtue of ordinance, that no plot or plot of division of any real property within its jurisdiction shall be presented for approval or verification by the Bureau of Lands or the Land Registration Commission until the same shall have been approved by the city council upon recommendation of the City Planning Board under such regulations as may be provided for by ordinance. Such regulations may also include provisions as to the extent to and methods by which streets and other ways be graded, drained and improved, and water and sewer and other public service mains, piping, and other facilities. Such regulations shall provide for approval of the plot or plan within sixty days after submission thereof to the City Council;

(60) To create, abolish and define boundaries of barrios and sitios in the city, to name and change the names of barrios, sitios, public buildings, public streets, parks and other public places located within the boundaries of the city upon petition of a majority of the voters in the areas affected but not oftener than once every ten years;

(61) To fix the penalty for violation of ordinances, but no single penalty shall exceed a fine of four hundred pesos or imprisonment for one year, or both; but imprisonment shall be imposed in lieu of unpaid fines at the rate of one day for every two pesos and fifty centavos of fine. Persons undergoing imprisonment for violation of ordinances 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 mayor. Whenever a person is imprisoned for non-payment of a fine, he shall be released upon payment of such fines less two pesos and fifty centavos per day for each day that he has been confined. Pending appeal, the defendant shall remain in custody unless released upon sufficient bail in accordance with the general provisions of law to await judgment of the appellate court;

(62) In case of violation of ordinance about building construction, the city council, in addition to the penalties authorized in the preceding subsection, may further impose the penalty of removal or demolition of the building structure by the owner or by the city at the expense of the owner, in which event, the cost of the work of removal shall be collected as a special assessment from such owner and enforceable by the same remedies as provided for in the preceding subsection regarding special assessment;

(63) To extend its ordinance over all waters within the city, over the sea of Dumaguete City six miles beyond the shore, over any boat of other floating structures thereon, over a zone surrounding the city on land of three miles in width, 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 two hundred meters of any reservoir, conduit, canal, aqueduct, or pumping station used in connection with the city water service.

(64) 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;

(65) To appropriate money for purposes not specified by law, having in view of the general welfare of the city and its inhabitants;

(66) To authorize payment of uniforms of the members of its police forces and the fire department;

(67) To authorize the payment of bonuses to city officials, and employees, not exceeding one month salary every fiscal year, payment of which shall be set out in an ordinance approved by the city council; and

(68) To authorize by ordinance the payment of transportation allowance to city officials and employees who, by the nature of their official functions, travel from one place to another within the jurisdiction of the City of Dumaguete.

Implied-power of the city shall be liberally construed in its favor. Any fair and reasonable doubts as to the existence of the power should be interpreted in favor of the city and it shall be presumed to exist. The general welfare clause be liberally interpreted in case of doubt as to give more power to the city government in promoting the economic condition, social welfare and material progress of the inhabitants of the city.