Are public hearings useful?

Invitations to public hearings are communicated via the community channel of TVNET.  Organizations normally get notices in writing to attend the hearings.  Upon arrival to the hearing, only then will one be given a copy of the draft ordinance.

A public hearing is defined as a process where interested parties have the opportunity to ask questions and more importantly, to express their opinion for or against a proposed ordinance.

But how can one ask the right questions, or express an intelligent, informed opinion when the subject was given a few minutes before the public hearing.  The Council should come up with a solution that will make it possible for the public especially the affected sectors to read the draft days before the public hearing.  They can make use of the Internet, print hard copies, distribute them or post them at conspicuous places.

To the councilors, a public hearing is an essential element of the law-making process.  Without it, an ordinance may be deemed invalid by the courts.

To the public, many tend to question its usefulness.  Here, more often than not, public hearings are conducted to satisfy solely the legal requirement in passing an ordinance.  Whether an ordinance is rejected in a public hearing is of no consequence. Remember the meetings on the one-point of entry issue, which later became the two-points of entry issue, which finally became the four-points of entry ordinance.  In all the hearings, the people spoke loudly against the issue, but the Sangguniang Bayan then and now did not heed the popular opinion.  The ordinance was passed accordingly.

Soon the matter of the controversial water project will be the subject of the public hearing.  It is an issue that demands the best and the brightest inputs from all sectors of the Puerto Galera community.  Its implications are far reaching and go beyond the term of office of the incumbent officials. 

Public hearings are useful when great ideas are heard with caveat that the councilors will know how to sift the grain from the chaff.