Section 15. Legislative powers.— The Municipal Board shall have the following legislative powers:
To provide for the levy and collection of taxes for general and special purposes in accordance with law, including specifically the power to levy real property tax not to exceed one and one-half per centum ad valorem: Provided, That the said maximum rate of one and one-half per centum shall not be imposed during the first five years of the effectivity of this Act.
To fix with the approval of the Department Head of the National Government the number and salaries of officials and employees of the city not otherwise provided for in this Act.
To authorize the free distribution of medicine to the employees and laborers of the city whose salary or wage does not exceed one hundred and twenty pesos per month or four pesos per day, and of evaporated or fresh native milk to indigent mothers residing in the city and of bread and light meals to indigent children ten years or less of age residing in the city, the distribution to be made under the direct supervision and control of the Mayor.
To fix the tariff of fees and charges of all services rendered by the city or any of its departments, branches or officials.
To provide for the erection and maintenance or the rental, in case of need, of the necessary buildings for the use of the city.
To provide for the establishment and maintenance of public schools; and, except as otherwise provided by law, to fix, with the approval of the Director of Public Schools, reasonable matriculation and/or tuition fees for intermediate and secondary instruction therein and to acquire sites for school houses for primary and intermediate classes through purchases or conditional or absolute donation.
To establish and maintain 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 or agencies; and, with the approval of the Director of Public Schools, to fix reasonable tuition fees for instruction in the vocational schools and in the institutions of higher learning supported by the city.
To provide for and maintain an efficient police force for the maintenance of law and order in the city, and make all necessary police ordinances, with a view to the confinement and reformation of vagrants, disorderly persons, mendicants, prostitutes and persons convicted of violating any of the ordinances of the city.
To maintain the municipal court established by law which shall have jurisdiction of all criminal cases under the ordinances of the city, and such further jurisdiction as may be herein or hereafter conferred.
To provide for and maintain a city fire department and to establish and maintain engine houses, fire engines, hose trucks, hooks and ladders, and other equipment for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and to regulate the management and use of the same.
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 other structures.
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 rockets, 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 provide relief for victims thereof.
To tax, 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 foods, personally carried by the hucksters or peddlers, barbers, collecting agencies, manicurists, hair dressers, tattooers, jugglers, acrobats, wrestlers and boxers; shooting galleries, slot machines, merry-go-rounds and other similar riding devices, and the keeping, preparation, and sale of meat, poultry, fish, game, butter, cheese, lard, vegetable, bread, and other provisions; and to impose a municipal occupation tax, not to exceed fifty pesos per annum, on lawyers, medical practitioners, land surveyors, architects, public accountants, civil, electrical, chemical, mechanical, or mining engineers, radio engineers or technicians, veterinarians, dental surgeons, opticians and optometrists, insurance agents and sub-agents, business agents and business consultants, professional appraisers or connoisseurs of tobacco or other domestic or foreign products, music teachers, piano, tuners, nurses, and midwives, auctioners, plumbers, electrical contractors, building contractors, massagists, physical culture instructors, chiropodists, money changers, real estate, commercial and other brokers, and persons engaged in the transportation of passengers or freight by hire, including common carriers and transportation contracts: Provided, That persons exercising their professions or occupations only as salaried employees and not as independent practitioners shall be exempt from the municipal occupation tax herein prescribed.
To tax, fix the license fee and regulate the business of hotels, restaurants, refreshment places, cafes, lodging houses, brewers, distillers, rectifiers, laundries, dyeing and cleaning establishments, beauty parlors, physical or beauty culture and fashion schools, clubs, livery garages, public warehouses, pawnshops, theaters, cinematographs, and the letting or subletting of lands and buildings, whether used for commercial, industrial or residential purposes; and further to fix the location of, and to tax, fix the license fee on, and regulate the business of, livery stables, boarding stables, embalmers, public billiard tables, public pool tables, bowling alleys, dance halls, public dancing halls, cabarets, night clubs, circuses and other similar parades, public vehicles, public ferries, cockpits, dealers in second hand materials or merchandise, junk dealers, theatrical performances, boxing contests, public exhibitions, black-smith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber yards, ship-yards, the storage and sale of gunpowder, tar, pitch, resin, coal, oil, gasoline, benzine, turpentine, hemp, cotton, nitroglycerin, 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 gave rise to conflagrations or explosions, and, subject to the provisions of ordinances issued by the Bureau of Health in accordance with law, tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, soap factories: Provided, That no license shall be granted to any theater or cinematograph unless the applicant for said license agrees to exhibit pictures made in the Philippines to the extent of five per centum of their annual exhibitions: And provided. further, That any violation of this condition shall cause the revocation of said license.
To tax and fix the license fees on printers or bookbinders or both, tailor shops, milliners, manufacturers of jewelry, embroideries, sail or awnings or both, rope, paper, leather goods, including shoes, slippers, sandals, harnesses and valises or bags, sporting goods, rubber goods, plastics and celluloid products, hardware including glasswares, cooking utensils, electrical goods and construction materials, chemical products including drugs, perfumes, toilet articles, paints, dyes and inks, textiles, shell lamps or lamp shades or both, statuettes or tombstones or both sacks, furniture of all kinds, including rattan goods, wire, brass beds or both, clothing, hats, eyeglasses or optical goods or both, fertilizers or buttons.
Manufacturers above-mentioned shall not be subject to the payment of any municipal tax or license fee as retail dealers of their own products: Provided, That any manufacturing conducted solely by the immediate members of a family at their own home shall not be subject to any tax or license fee.
Dealers in general merchandise shall be classified as (a) wholesale dealers and (b) retail dealers. For purposes of the tax on retail dealers, general merchandise shall be classified into four main classes, namely: (1) luxury articles, (2) semi-luxury articles, (3) essential commodities, and (4) miscellaneous articles. A separate license shall be prescribed for each class but where commodities of different classes are sold in the same establishment, it shall not be compulsory for the owner to secure more than one license if he pays the higher or highest rate of tax prescribed by ordinance. Wholesale dealers shall pay the license tax as such, as may be provided by ordinance.
For purposes of this section, the term “general merchandise” shall include poultry and livestock, agricultural products, fish and other allied products.
To tax, fix and license fee on and regulate the sale, trading in or disposal of alcoholic or malt beverages, wines, and mixed or fermented liquors, including tuba, basi, tapuy, offered for retail sale.
To impose a tax on all products or commodities manufactured or produced in the city and removed therefrom.
To impose a sales tax of not exceeding one per centum of the gross value in money of all articles sold, bartered, exchanged or transferred within the city.
To regulate the method of using steam engines and boilers, and all other motive powers 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 and fees for the licenses of the engineers engaged in operating the same.
To provide for the prohibition and suppression of riots, affrays, disturbances, and disorderly assemblies; houses of ill-fame and other disorderly houses; gaming houses; gambling and all fraudulent devices for the purpose of obtaining money or property; prostitution, vagrancy, intoxication, fighting, quarrelling, and all disorderly conduct; and printing, circulation, exhibition, possession or sale of obscene pictures, books, or publications, and for the maintenance and preservation of peace and good morals.
To prohibit, or regulate and fix the license fees for the keeping of dogs, and 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 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 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 Lapu-Lapu 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 are assessed, constitute liens on the property against which the same were assessed and shall take precedence over any and all other liens which may exist upon such property excepting only such as may have been attached as a result of the of the non-payment of said annual tax.
To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, coal and other articles or merchandise.
(bb) Subject to the provisions of existing law, 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, and sprinkling of streets, and public places; to regulate, fix license fees for and prohibit the use of the same for processions, signs, signposts, awning, awning posts, and 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 prohibit the placing, throwing, depositing, or leaving of obstacles of any kind, garbage, refuse, or other offensive matter or matters liable to cause damage in the street 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 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 cross-walks, curbs and gutters therein; to make streets without 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 horse and other animal-driven vehicle within the limits of the city.
(cc) To provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate the navigation on, canals, and water courses within the city and provide for the cleansing and purification of the same; unless otherwise provided by law, to provide for the construction and maintenance, and regulate the use of public landing places wharves, piers, docks and levees, and those of private ownership; and to provide for or regulate the drainage and filling of private premises when necessary in the enforcement of sanitary rules and regulations issued in accordance with law.
(dd) Subject to the provisions of the Public Service Law, to fix the charges to be paid by all water craft landing at or using public wharves, docks, levees, or landing places owned, operated, managed or controlled by the city.
(ee) Any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, 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 water supply and the places through which the same passes, and to regulate the consumption and use of water; to fix, subject to the provisions of the Public Service Law, and provide for the collection of rents therefor and to regulate the construction, repair and use of hydrants, pumps, cisterns and reservoirs.
(ff) To provide for the establishment and maintenance and regulate the use of public drains, sewers, latrines and cesspools.
(gg) Subject to the rules and regulations issued by the Director of Health Services in accordance with law, to provide for the establishment, maintenance and to fix the fees for the use of, and regulate stables, laundries and baths, and public markets and prohibit the establishment or operation within the city limits of public markets by any person, entity, association, or corporation other than the city.
(hh) To establish or authorize the establishment of slaughterhouses, to provide for their veterinary or sanitary inspection, to regulate the use of the same, and to charge reasonable slaughter fees. No fees shall be charged for veterinary or sanitary inspection of meat from large cattle or other domestic animals slaughtered outside the city, when such inspection was had at the place where the animals were slaughtered.
(ii) To regulate, inspect and provide measures preventing any discrimination or the exclusion of any race or races in or from any institution, establishments, or service open to the public within the city limits, or in the sale and supply of gas, electricity, or in the telephone service; to fix and regulate charges therefor where the same has not been fixed by the national law; to regulate and provide for inspection of all gas, electric and telephone conduits, mains, meters, and other apparatus, and provide for the condemnation, substitution or removal of the same when defective or dangerous.
(jj) 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 within sixty days from the date a written notice is served, the city health officer shall cause the same to be kept in a sanitary condition, and the cost thereof to be assessed against 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 and/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 display by electric signs or the erection or maintenance of billboards or structures of whatever materials 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.
(kk) To provide for the enforcement of the rules and regulations issued by the Director of Health Services, and by ordinance to prescribe penalties for violation of such rules and regulations.
(ll) To extend its ordinances over all waters within the city, 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.
(mm) To regulate any other business or occupation being conducted within the city not specifically mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, and to impose a license fee upon all persons engaged in the same or who enjoy privileges in the city.
(nn) To fix and regulate the size, speed, and operation of motor and other vehicles within the city; to regulate the lights used on such vehicles; 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.
(oo) To grant fishing and fishery privileges subject to the provisions of the Fisheries Act.
(pp) To fix the date of the holding of a fiesta in the City not oftener than once a year and to alter, not oftener than once in three years, the date fixed for the celebration thereof.
(qq) 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 Chapter; 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.