Thursday, February 19, 2004
Lacto plant ordered closed by City Hall
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña gave the owners of the health drink Lacto Pafi Bacillus Plantarum until August this year to close their plant in Barangay Guadalupe, after complaints about excessive garbage reached him.
Guadalupe Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar, however, clarified the plant did not violate any sanitation standards or health-related guidelines.
The plant is in a residential area, in violation of the zoning ordinance.
The mayor, in a press conference yesterday, said he received complaints three to four months ago that enormous piles of garbage are dumped in the street behind the plant.
“Ang nireklamo niingon nga ang sakyanan hapit dili na kaagi (The complainants said their vehicles could hardly go through),” said the mayor, who referred the matter to
the Office of the Building Official.
The mayor also said the plant violated the zoning ordinance so he signed the closure order last Feb. 12.
Lacto Bacillus Pafi Techno Resources Corp. received the order last Feb. 16.
The mayor, who gave the company up to August this year after it asked for a 120-day extension, said there was no politics in the move.
Sudden growth
Cebu Provincial Board Member Greg Sanchez, Lacto Pafi president, agreed politics was not behind the closure order. He admitted they did not quite expect the sudden growth of the company from a fledgling venture that operated small-time.
His daughter Gigi Sanchez, a chemical engineer, said the closure will not affect the company’s operations since they have an expansion center, which will be fully operational by April, in Catarman, Liloan town.
She said they knew the place in Guadalupe was a residential area and that they intended to comply with the requirements.
Because of the recent development, the company’s compound in Guadalupe will be transformed into a warehouse and distribution center.
The vats will be relocated to the new plant site in Catarman.
Gigi said their Catarman plant churns out 200,000 bottles a day that they are even opening an office in Hong Kong by April.
The company is also opening another expansion center in Minglanilla town for the production of its cosmetic products.
Wrong place
Zoning Administrator Joel Reston told Office of the Building Official Chief Josefa Ylanan last Dec. 29, 2003 that according to the 1996 Revised Zoning Ordinance of Cebu City, Lacto Pafi’s plant operations are illegal.
Last Jan. 7, City Attorney Evangeline Abatayo sent Sanchez a notice directing him to explain in writing, within 72 hours, why the company “should not be closed for having no business permit for manufacturing” its products on V. Rama Ave., Guadalupe.
The company’s legal counsel sent a letter dated Jan. 15, 2004 that Lacto Pafi applied for a permit “at the inception of its manufacturing operations.”
The application was denied, however, because the area was a residential one.
“They’re in the wrong place. That area is no place for a factory. Maaayo lang for just a small outfit there, maybe we can tolerate,” the mayor said.
(February 19, 2004 issue)
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