THE Davao City Business Bureau has filed complaints against 256 businesses for non-compliant with the city's revenue law, ordinances, and regulations as of July 2022.
Business Bureau head Maribel Paguican told SunStar Davao in an interview that out of the number of complaints filed, 135 were served with closure orders.
Based on the data she provided, 12,605 establishments were inspected, both day and night.
Paguican said some of those erring establishments were operating without a permit, with others having been noted for various violations. Some of these include misdeclaration of business model, wrong declared address, and the number of declared employees, among others.
She said they intensified their monitoring in the establishments, considering that majority of the businesses are slowly reopening due to the continuous relaxation of restrictions against Covid-19.
Their inspection, she said, is announced to ensure that those non-compliant firms will be caught, and will be issued to comply.
Aside from that, Paguican said they are also intensifying their information dissemination in their inspection.
"Day and night ang among pag-inspection efforts. Daghan na pud mi'g na-inspectionan. In fact, ang uban ani nila, nagakuha dayon sila'g permit kay mahadlok sila masirad-an. Pero ang uban gyud dili. So maong isyuhan nato sila'g notice (Our inspection efforts are done day and night. We had already inspected a lot of establishments. In fact, when we noticed they don’t have the necessary permits, they immediately secure it because they are afraid that they would be issued closure notice. However, some don’t comply at all. That’s the time we issue notices)," she said.
For first and second notice, she said the city will be issuing a warning, while a closure order will be given for the third time. As for establishments with reported complaints, they will be given a cease and desist order.
From January to July of this year, the office renewed a total of 40,371 business permits in the city, which is considerably higher than the 38,963 renewals issued during the same period last year. A total of 5,947 new business permits have, so far, been approved this year.
Paguican said as many as 46,000 business owners applied for a business permit last year, but approximately 6,000 of them were unsuccessful in securing permits.
“Not all applications will be successful because applications will have to go through different offices, including the Bureau of Fire,” she said.
As many as 50,000 business permits (new and subject to renewal) may be issued before the end of 2022. This is largely due to the automated systems integrated into the office’s operations which streamline and fast-track day-to-day business transactions.