Erring Baguio City business establishments to be closed

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY  – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said the grace period given by the local government to owners of business establishments that converted their allocated parking spaces to commercial spaces already expired and must adhere  to regulations to avoid being closed.

The local chief said existence of parking spaces in buildings is part of the conditions imposed by the local government for the issuance of their building and occupancy permits; the absence of such parking allocations will be a ground for the city to initially cancel the occupancy permits issued to owners of businesses and the subsequent withdrawal of their building permits.

“We have given the establishment owners sufficient time to remedy the situation and bring back the parking spaces that were converted to commercial spaces. We need the parking spaces in the buildings to decongest our major roads from being used as their parking spaces since the parking allocations were converted to commercial spaces by building owners,” Domogan said.

The city mayor directed city hall offices to inspect identified business establishments that violated conditions so their building and occupancy permits will be cancelled.

The mayor said violations had already been discussed with the concerned building owners three times and it was the business owners who requested for sufficient time for them to comply because they have existing contracts with their lessees who rented the parking slots and converted them to commercial spaces.

Under the National Building Code of the Philippines and other related local ordinances, owners of buildings are mandated to provide parking spaces for their lessees to avoid vehicle owners from parking on the sides of roads and in open public places.

He said time is already up for the building owners to start complying with what was previously agreed upon between the local government and their group to avoid the outright cancellation of their respective building and occupancy permits that will result to the closure of their establishments.

He urged building owners to start rectifying the anomalous situation by reconverting the commercial spaces into parking areas and not wait for the inspection by the concerned offices because it would mean the imposition of stiffer penalties against them aside from the closure of their operations until such time that they will comply with the restoration of parking spaces within their structures.

The non-existence of parking spaces in many buildings in the city had been criticized by the public after such parking spaces that paved the way for the approval of their permits were suddenly converted to commercial use.