HAPPY WEEKEND

Keeping order in a tourist town
Gina P. Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province - Mayor-elect Eduardo Latawan considers a law-abiding community important in effecting order and progress for this municipality. A noted tourist-town widely visited by people from different places and countries of the world, peace and order is needed or people would go beyond the limits.

Latawan supports the resolution of outgoing members of the Sangguniang Bayan here ordering Globe to stop its illegal operations. The incoming mayor said Globe telecommunications which is currently operating in the community, should get necessary permits before it will do operations.

Globe has been operating for two years now without the required permits. These required clearances include environmental compliance certificate from the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, free prior and informed consent from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and a business permit from the office of the mayor.

Business permits are necessary before anybody could operate a business. Sagada hosts a number of business operations spread out in its 19 barangays ranging from sarisari stores, dry goods stores, wet market goods, videoke bars, billiard halls, computer shops, to hotels and restaurants.

The treasury collects nearly one million pesos sourced from fees of 163 business establishments and real property taxes. As it is, the LGU with a P19 million budget heavily sourced from internal revenue allotment could only collect a measly local income for a tourist town.

The mayor wants to see increased income for the municipality which may be used for other community welfare purposes such as support to education and health benefits for its constituents. He wants to see the increase of the environmental fee collected from tourists which had been stuck at 10.00 per visitor who enters Sagada. With the change of the value of the peso now, the 10 needs to be increased, he said.

He supports a legislative ordinance which forwards the submission of the environmental fee collected from tourists to the municipal treasury. For a tourist town, parking is also one big source of income especially during the months of November to May. The LGU here may learn a lesson from nearby Bontoc which automatically charges vehicles parking fees which enter its territory.

Tourism is one of major sources of livelihood for the people of this town especially among the populace of central Poblacion. Latawan wants the Tourism Council to function and identify ways of how tourism can be developed as a potential source of income for the people of the town.

In the case of Globe and Smart which are currently operating in the town’s territory, the share of the town from the profits derived from the said companies’ operations in the town shall be subjected for legal opinion.

As it is, the two giant companies pay their rents only to the lot owner and no taxes nor fees are given to the LGU. The engineer- mayor is also strict about implementing market rules. With a public market nearly finished, he sees the use of the public infrastructure implemented fairly and lawfully. Subleasing shall not be tolerated and stall rents would be regularly collected and paid to the treasury.

The outgoing Sangguniang Bayan, approved a P450,000 budget for the yet to be finished public market to finish construction. Observing the 9 p.m. curfew is important also for the incoming mayor in order to keep peace and order for the benefit of the whole community.

One of the pressing concerns of the mayor is to endorse the letter-complaint of residents of Ambasing to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation to investigate abuses allegedly perpetrated by an Austrian tourist on residents here.

While peace and order aside from increasing income for the community are priority concerns, social welfare programs as embodied in recently approved ordinances such as the Children’s Code and the Gender Code where the incoming mayor sits as chair of the Sagada Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking and Violence Against Women and Children are pressing concerns as well.