By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

OUTGOING elected officials would not be allowed to just leave office and abandon unfinished business without briefing their successors under a bill that proposes the establishment of a transition mechanism for certain elective offices. 
“Transitions are important for newly elected officials as well as incumbents to begin a dialog regarding office functions and procedures in order for government operations to continue orderly and without interruption,” said Sen. Frank Ishizaki, R-Yona, author of Bill 39.
Bill 39, Ishizaki’s first legislation, would apply to the offices of the attorney general, public auditor, mayors and vice mayors.
These positions, according to Ishizaki, do not have any mechanism that guarantees a smooth and orderly transition between the outgoing incumbent and the elected incoming officials.
The bill was purportedly prompted by the predicament at the Attorney General’s Office, when then-Attorney General Douglas Moylan refused to give his successor, Alicia Limtiaco, access to documents that she had requested while she was preparing to assume office after winning the race for the attorney general.
Limtiaco had filed a Sunshine Act request for documents pertaining to the bond borrowing case pending at the U.S. Supreme Court, but Moylan declined the request, saying she wasn’t officially on the job until she was sworn in.
Under Ishizaki’s bill, the outgoing attorney general, public auditor, mayors and vice mayors would be required to assist their successors by providing proper orientation about the duties and functions of the offices, and turning over all office documents. The outgoing incumbents, under the bill, may form a transition committee “during the period between election and assumption of office.”