Friday, February 16, 2007 Angeles engineers hit over building scams By Dante M. Fabian
ANGELES CITY -- Some engineers at the City Building Office (CBO) may be intentionally allowing violations of building and zoning laws in construction projects and later use these to "blackmail" owners into shelling out grease money to obtain occupancy and business permits, a source said.
The source said businessmen are forced to fork out huge amounts of money to officials and inspectors to obtain permits despite serious structural defects on their buildings.
The sources added that building owners could cough up as much as hundreds of thousands of pesos for inspectors and other officials before being issued occupancy and business permits.
The apparent neglect of some engineers in implementing the zoning rules is among the reasons that many members of the Angeles Clark Field Tourism Association (Acta) have refused to pay their monthly dues.
The unfair enforcement of the construction rules has also brought suspicions of connivance between contractors and city building inspectors in letting building owners fall into a trap that would later force them to offer bribes just to be able to obtain permits.
Several building owners here complain that while scores of establishments tore down and rebuilt their street-side walls to meet the minimum easement of 3.6 meters, some were able to obtain occupancy and business permits despite violations of the same rules stipulated in the city's Comprehensive Land Use and Zoning Ordinance.
The CBO is the agency tasked to enforce the ordinance, which was passed under Resolution 1 S-2000 upon the endorsement of Councilor Willie Rivera, then the co-chairman of the City Development Council (CDC).
Some of those who complied also cited a newly completed hotel building project, the Pacific Breeze at the corner of Rovimar and Vian Streets. They wondered why the building was issued occupancy permits despite having glaring violations of the zoning ordinance. It was learned that the easements of the building measured only 2.0 meters, which is 1.6 meters below the required 3.6 meters.
Sources told Sun.Star Pampanga that the deficiencies in the construction of Pacific Breeze have also prompted the zoning administrator to freeze the issuance of zoning clearances thereby delaying the renewal of their business permits.
They added that most businesses here are now operating with only temporary permits
The business operators decried that the inconvenience unnecessarily suffered by the investors are completely averse to the development of the city's tourism industry.
They called Mayor Carmelo Lazatin to investigate and look into the unscrupulous activities and kick out engineers who may be found purposely ignoring defects during the construction phase and later causing troubles for building owners for their personal gains.
According to them, allowing these CBO personnel to remain working at the City Hall would only undermine Lazatin's initiatives to further improve the tourist center.
