A boarding house and sari-sari store at New Lucban barangay were flagged by a composite team from the city government last Nov. 4, 2022 for business permit and smoke-free ordinance violations.
City permits and licensing division chief Allan Abayao said the inspection was conducted based on complaints received by Mayor Benjamin Magalong that the establishment was serving as a haunt for student smokers.
Abayao said the joint Inspection with the Public Order and Safety Division, City Health Services Office, Baguio City Police Station 7, Anti-Smoking Team, and New Lucban punong barangay John Caluza found that the registered owner of the establishment was operating as real estate lessor or boarding house without the necessary permit prompting the licensing office to issue him a notice of violation.
The sari-sari store on the other hand was ordered to stop business operation and issued notice of violation and citation ticket even if its operation is covered by a license for selling cigarettes by stick and for tolerating students to smoke in the premises.
The team confiscated the store’s cigarette wares.
The composite team led by the City Health Office has been sustaining its monitoring and inspection activities to ensure that boarding houses, dormitories and other accommodation establishments are complying with the rules on sanitation, structural safety and health protocols.
Magalong earlier directed the intensified monitoring of these establishments as well as speeding up of action on concerns involving them.
He tasked the city’s composite team to make inspections a regular activity and to follow through and secure the commitment of owners of AEs that incurred violations of health and sanitation and building rules to comply with all the requirements and institute the corrective measures.
The city also set up hotlines for students, workers and other boarders to report unsafe and unsanitary AEs to.
Complaints may be lodged at the Baguio in My Pocket (BIMP) app or through our permits and licensing office hotline 619-3984, health hotlines 09184880195, 09278587272, 0744449217, or to Facebook age of the Baguio City Health Services Office or email at sanitationdivision2018@gmail.com or hso.baguio@gmail.com.