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Sunday, November 11, 2007
Tenants plead for Lapu’s help
CEBU CITY -- Tenants of Marina Mall failed to get Lapu-Lapu City Hall’s assurance that their businesses will not be disturbed amid an ongoing dispute between Mayor Arturo Radaza and their lessor, businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr.
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“If you want a categorical answer, (whether or not) you will be issued a business permit next year, I would say no, unless you comply with the law,” said City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim.
He told this to a representative of one of the 80 mall establishments during a three-hour dialogue at the City Council session hall Saturday.
Lapu-Lapu City is going after the tenants, who it claims have incomplete permits–a move seen as City Hall’s way of getting back, after Pelaez accused Radaza of anomalies in the P23-million purchase of computers.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas is investigating Radaza.
Last Oct. 19, City Hall closed Marina Mall, citing the lack of permits. But the establishment was reopened nine hours later after the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) asserted its jurisdiction over it.
During Saturday’s dialogue, Radaza told the tenants he will meet with the City Hall department heads to find a “reconciliatory remedy” without sacrificing the City’s interest.
“Mao man bitaw nga nia ta dinhi aron madungog namo ang inyong side kay sa karon nga situation kamo ang naapiki (The reason this meeting was called is for us to hear your side, because this situation isn’t good for you),” he said.
Pelaez was invited to the meeting, but he had a prior commitment with business partners in Manila.
In a long distance interview with Sun.Star Cebu, he said “there is also no point in dignifying his (Radaza’s) invitation.”
“I expect the things that he would say. It would all be harassment, and this is part of his psy-war,” he said.
One representative asked for the City to allow them to operate without a permit for six months because they have already advanced Pelaez their rent.
Another, Michael Estrella, asked for any assurance that they could get from City Hall after the dialogue.
But Lim was unmoved, saying Pelaez should first secure the building permit and other variances from the City.
“Sa situation karon kamo ang na-hostage (In this situation, you are being hostaged). You convince Pelaez to get the permits from us,” he told them.
Questions on whether Peza or the City has jurisdiction over the mall have kept the City from tearing down the building and two other establishments owned by Pelaez.
But since the court’s Oct. 27 preliminary injunction covered only the demolition, the City Government believes it can shut down Pelaez’s businesses anytime.
The injunction directed both parties to observe a status quo until the court resolves the case on its merits.
Pelaez insists he has permits from Peza, so his tenants’ operations are all legal.
City Treasurer Elenita Catagcatag said the dispute over jurisdiction is only one of the “many problems” the City has with Peza, whose officials think that locators inside the zone are exempted from the City’s tax powers.
The same is true for the 90 canteens inside Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) 1, so that for a five-year period, the City lost P600 million in revenues, she added.
“Lapu-Lapu is perceived as progressive, but its income does not speak well of it, because of Peza,” she said.
Catagcatag said she became city treasurer in September 2005, and it was only in February 2006 that she and her inspectors were allowed by MEZ 1 officials to inspect non-tax-exempt companies, whose businesses are not export-oriented but just support services.
Officials of MEZ 2 in Barangay Basak, though, have kept the City from looking into the businesses of their locators.
Catagcatag pointed out that the MEZ started operating in the late 1970s, but it was only last week that City Hall was given copies of the number of canteens operating inside MEZ 1. (AIV/Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (November 11, 2007 issue)
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