Section 15.
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:
(a) 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 maximum rate of one and one-half per centum shall not be imposed during the first ten years from the effectivity of this Act:
Provided, further,
That in the case of machinery, which term shall embrace machines, mechanical contrivances, instruments, appliances, and apparatus attached to the real estate used for industrial, agricultural or manufacturing purposes, the tax should not also exceed one and one-half per centum ad valorem;
(b) To make all appropriations for the expenses of the government of the city;
(c) To fix the number and salaries of officials and employees of the city not otherwise provided for in this Act:
Provided,
That the rate thereof shall not exceed the maximum salary provided by existing salary laws and orders issued by the President;
(d) To authorize the free distribution of medicine to the employees and laborers of the city whose salary or wages 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 of the Mayor;
(e) To fix the schedule of fees and charges for services rendered by the city or any of its departments, branches or officials;
(f) To provide for the erection and maintenance or the rental in case of need, of the necessary buildings for the use of the city;
(g) 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 institutions therein and to acquire sites for schools houses for primary and intermediate classes through purchases or conditional or absolute donations; 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;
(h) 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;
(i) To maintain the city 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;
(j) 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;
(k) To establish fire zones, determine the kinds of buildings or structures that may be erected within their limits, which shall not exceed in height the limitations set by the Civil Aeronautics Administration; 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;
(l) To regulate the use of lights in stables, shops, and other buildings and places and to regulate or restrict the issuance of permits for the building of bonfires and rockets and the use of firecrackers, fireworks, torpedoes, candles skyrockets, and other pyrotechnic displays, and to fix the fees for such permits;
(m) 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, fruit, or foods, personally carried by the hucksters or peddlers; barbers, collecting agencies, manicurists, hair dressers, tattooers, jugglers, acrobats, wrestlers, boxers, pelotaris and jockeys; shooting, galleries, slot machines, except jackpot or one-armed bandit 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;
(n) To tax, fix the license fee and regulate the business of hotels, motels, restaurants, refreshment places, cafes, lodging houses, boarding 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, race tracks, horse races, dog races, cockpits, dealers in second-hand materials or merchandise, junk dealers, theatrical performances, boxing contests, public exhibitions, blacksmith shops, foundries, steam boilers, lumber yards, shipyards, 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 give rise to conflagration or explosions, and, subject to the provisions of rules and regulations issued by the Department of Health in accordance with law, tanneries, renderies, tallow chandleries, bone factories, and soap factories;
(o) To tax, regulate the fix the license fees on printers or bookbinders or both, tailor shops, milliners, manufacturers of jewelry, embroideries sail, or awnings or both, rope, papers, leather goods including shoes, slippers, sandals, harnesses, and valises or bags, sporting goods, rubber goods, plastics and celluloid products, hardware including glassware and tinware ceramics, and cement products, cooking utensils and 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 eye-glasses or optical goods or both, fertilizers, and buttons.
Manufacturers above-mentioned shall not be subject to the payment of any city tax or license fees as retail dealers of their own products;
(p) To tax and fix the license fee on dealers in general merchandise, including importers and indentors, except those dealers who may be expressly subject to the payment of some other city tax under the provisions of this section;
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 on highest rate of tax prescribed by ordinances. 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;
(q) To tax, fix the license fee on and regulate the sale, trading in or disposal of intoxicating liquors, whether imported or locally manufactured, alcoholic, or malt beverages, wines, and mixed or fermented liquors, including tuba, basi, and tapuy offered for retail sale;
(r) To impose a tax on all products or commodities manufactured or produced in the city and removed therefrom;
(s) 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;
(t) To regulate the methods of using steam engines and boilers, and all other motive powers other than marine steam engines, or those 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;
(u) 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, circulating, exhibition, possession or sale of obscene pictures, books, or publications and for the maintenance and preservation of peace and good morals;
(v) 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;
(w) To establish and maintain city pounds; to regulate restrain, and prohibit the running at large of domestic animals, and provide for 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;
(x) To prohibit and provide for the punishment of cruelty to animals;
(y) 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 qualify, 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 San Carlos in Pangasinan, in the same manner as the annual tax levied on real estate, and shall be 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 be the procedure 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 non-payment of said annual tax;
(z) To regulate the inspection, weighing, and measuring of brick, lumber, hollow blocks, adobe stones, tiles, coal and other articles or merchandise;
(aa) 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, parks, cemeteries, and other public places; to provide for lighting, cleaning, and sprinkling of streets and public places; to regulate, fix license fees and prohibit the use of the same for processions, signs, signposts, awnings, awning posts, and the carrying or displaying of banners, placards, advertisements, or hand bills, or the flying of signs, flags, or banners whether, 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 gas, water, sewers, and other pipes, the building and repair of tunnels, sewers, and drain 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 names 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 prohibit and regulate the operation of human power driven vehicles, and locomotives within the limits of the city; to regulate the lights used on all such vehicles and locomotives; to regulate the locating, constructing, and laying of tracks for horse, electric, and other forms of rail vehicles in streets and other public places of the city authorized by law; to provide for any change of the location, grade and crossing of railroads, and 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 the natural drainage of the streets and adjacent property shall not be obstructed;
(bb) To provide for the construction and maintenance of, and regulate the navigation on canals and watercourses within the city and provide for the cleaning and purification of the same; 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;
(cc) 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;
(dd) To provide for the establishment and maintenance and regulate the use of public drains, sewers, latrines, and cesspools;
(ee) Subject to the rules and regulations issued by the Department of Health in accordance with law, to provide for the establishment and maintenance and to fix the fees for the use of, and regulate public stables, laundries, and baths, and public markets, and to prohibit or permit by license granted upon such terms as shall be fixed by the Council, the establishment or operation within the city limits of public markets by any person, entity, association, or corporation other than the city;
(ff) 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;
(gg) 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 service; to fix and regulate charges therefor where the same have not been fixed by national law; to regulate and provide for the condemnation, substitution or removal of the same when defective or dangerous;
(hh) 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;
(ii) To provide for the enforcement of the rules and regulations issued by the Department of Health, and by ordinance to prescribe penalties for violation of such rules and regulations;
(jj) For the purpose of protecting and insuring the purity of the water supply of the city, to extend its ordinances 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;
(kk) 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;
(ll) 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;
(mm) To fix the date of the holding of fiesta in the city not oftener than once a year and to alter, not oftener than one in three years, the date fixed for the celebration thereof;
(nn) To fix local holidays; and
(oo) 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, and 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.
The Council, by ordinance, may likewise divide the city into district for administrative and other purposes, including the description of property.