LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government wants to propose amendments to the town’s liquor ordinance following the numerous violations documented during a series of surprise inspections of night establishments over the past several weeks.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda stated that one of the major amendments desired from the town’s liquor ordinance is the penalty to be imposed on violators to include the revocation of business permits for perennial violators of the ordinance.
He claimed that despite Benguet being placed under alert Level 2 where there are limitations on the operating hours of night establishments, many resto bars had been found out to be operating round the clock aside from catering to minor customers which are already blatant violations of the town’s liquor ordinance.
The municipal chief executive pointed out that the problem with the existing liquor ordinance is that violators are only slapped fines, thus, when the establishment owner is able to settle the imposed fine of P1,000, the business can continue to operate even with numerous violations issued by the concerned authorities.
According to him, violators must be given a maximum of three violations prior to the revocation of their business permits to teach them a lesson to abide by the implementation of existing ordinances governing their operations.
He explained that under the present liquor ordinance, business owners can just simply pay their fines regardless of the number of committed violations without fear of their permits being suspended or revoked.
However, with the proposed amendment to the liquor ordinance, he asserted that business establishment owners will surely comply with the limitations imposed on their nightly operations to help in preventing the further spread of the deadly virus in the communities and continue instilling law and order in the municipality.
The mayor disclosed that night spots such as restobars are only allowed to operate until 9 pm pursuant to the limitations imposed by the prevailing community quarantine restrictions of local governments that are under Alert Level 2.
He admitted that municipal officials had been receiving numerous complaints on the operation of nights spots that go beyond the prescribed time limit and the noise from these establishments cause undue disturbance to the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, Salda revealed that during the conduct of surprise inspections, it was found out there are night spots that allow minors to drink liquor while other employ minors which are clear major violation of the rules governing their operations, thus, the need for the municipal council to enact an ordinance that will impose stricter penalties against the violators to put teeth to the implementation of the law.
He urged night spots operating in the municipality to strictly adhere to the implementation of the limitations on their operations primarily because Benguet is still under alert Level 2 where there are limits on the occupancy of establishments and their operating hours.
