Mayor wants market building owners with void contracts out

By Dexter A. See 

BAGUIO CITY – Contracts of some 127 building owners within the city public market have expired as of Dec. 31, 2015, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said.

This means, he said, that they do not have the right to occupy the buildings unless their contracts are renewed with the inclusion of the 15-year expiration period.

Domogan said while the local government does not have the authority to force the building owners to sign the renewal of their contracts with the 15-year expiration period, building owners do not also have the right to compel the city to renew their contracts pursuant to their conditions, thus, there has been no mutual agreement of parties concerned.

 Of 127 building owners, 83 have already signed renewal of their contracts with the local government that included the 15-year expiration period while 46 insisted on removal of the expiration period from their contracts.

Currently, 37 renewed contracts were confirmed by the city council while the mayor signed more than 30 contracts which will be submitted to the city council for confirmation before the lapse of the 90-day ultimatum issued by the city for renewal of their contracts.

Domogan said after expiration of the 90-day grace period on August 27, 2017, building owners who have not renewed their contracts by then can take their improvements in their leased areas to allow the local government to bid out said properties to interested bidders who accept prescribed expiration of their contracts.

He said increase of rentals from P2 per square meter per day to P6 per square meter per day was a product of negotiations with affected building owners who agreed to revised rentals for the city-owned lands that they currently occupy.

He said the agreed revised rental rate is still beneficial to building owners because it is computed based on the land area occupied by their structures and not computed on a per floor basis, thus, it would be unfair to the local government for building owners to claim the renewed contracts are to the greater advantage of the city government.

Domogan said building owners should be thankful that the local government still opted to continue negotiating with them to strike a better deal instead of acceding to the recommendation of the Commission on Audit for the city to bid out use of leased areas considering that the previous contracts were reportedly grossly disadvantageous to the city as per COA findings.

The next batch of renewed contracts will be transmitted to the city council for confirmation.