By Dexter A. See
BAGUIO
CITY – The city council approved a resolution directing the permits and
licensing division under the City Mayor’s Office to require golf courses
operating in the city that do not have business permits to secure the same with
the local government and submit to the local legislative body a report regarding
compliance within 15 working days from the passage of the measure or face
closure.
The resolution authored by Vice Mayor Edison
R. Bilog cited the local legislative body passed Resolution No. 072, series of
2017: entitled “Directing the permits and licensing division, office of the
city mayor, to conduct inspection of all golf courses in the City of Baguio and
to submit a report to the Sangguniang Panlungsod within seven days from
approval of the resolution.”
Bilog noted after legislative monitoring and evaluation
by the city council regarding compliance to the resolution, the PLD reported in
their first endorsement dated March 17, 2017, to the office of the vice mayor
that there are golf courses operating in the city without the required permits.
He added the PLD should require all the golf
courses in the city that do not have the required permits to secure such and
for the same office to issue the appropriate closure orders once the management
of the golf courses refuse to comply with the legislative action.
Bilog said the City Treasury Office should
also come out with its computation detailing the arrearages of the two golf
courses that have not reportedly paid their permits to the city and compels the
management of the golf courses to pay the said obligations to the local
government within a reasonable time.
According to him, there are golf courses in
the city that failed to secure the mandatory business permits for their
operations over the past five decades which deprived the city of the supposed
income that it should have derived from their operations for fifty years now.
The
existing golf courses in the city are operated by the Baguio Country Club, the
Camp John Hay Development Corporation, and the Sta. Lucia Realty and
Development Corporation.
If ordinary sari-sari stores are being
compelled to secure permits from the local government for their business
activities in the different barangays, Bilog argued that companies operating
golf courses that generate substantial income for their incorporators and
owners should also be compelled to secure permits to operate the said business
endeavor considering that they are collecting fees from those who play golf in
their courses.
He said funds that will be generated by the
local government from the operators of the existing golf courses will be used
to augment the city’s meager resources to bankroll the implementation of
priority development projects in the barangays and sustain the improvement of
the delivery of basic services to the people thereby cascading to the
grassroots level development opportunities for them in the future. -- Dexter A.
See
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