TUBA, Benguet – Mayor Ignacio Rivera denied the request of the operator of the controversial electronic games in an establishment along Marcos highway for the issuance of its business permit for this year because the said area is not within the jurisdiction of the municipality.
The local chief executive admitted that based on available documents and researches, the area where the Secret Place structure is located and where the controversial electronic games are housed falls within the jurisdiction of Baguio city that is why his office is not inclined in issuing the operator the required business permit for this year as it will be unfair to the city government.
“We have to remember that the swapping of the properties of the municipality to those of the properties of the city government has not yet become final because of the failure of Congress to enact the revised century old Charter of Baguio City. It remains that more than three-fourths of the Tuba municipal building still is within the jurisdiction of Baguio City,” Rivera stressed.
He explained most of the establishments before the junction of Marcos highway to that of Tuba municipality are all within the jurisdiction of Baguio City that is why the owners of the said establishments and their lessees must secure their permits from the city government and not try to circumvent the legality of their operations by securing their business permits from the municipal government because he is inclined to deny such application.
According to him, Tuba does not intend to encroach on the authority of the city government to issue business permits to business establishments that are well within its area of jurisdiction that is why he made it a policy to deny all requests for application for the issuance of business permits in the said contested area as it has been very clear that it is the city that has jurisdiction over the said area.
Earlier, officials of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) who appeared before the recent regular session of the City Council agreed to close the operation of the electronic games within Secret Place once the local legislative body has submitted its reiterated resolution seeking the revocation and cancellation of the permit that the State gaming corporation granted to the e-games operator because it secured the endorsement from the Tuba municipal council and the business permit from the Tuba municipal government which does not have actual jurisdiction over the said area.
Rivera expressed his confidence that the boundary dispute of the municipality and the city will be permanently resolved once Congress passes the required revisions to the old City Charter so that the swapping of the properties of the two local governments will be legitimized and there will be no future encroachments in the identified areas of jurisdiction of the two localities.
Rivera claimed it had been unfair to the city government that the municipal government had been issuing the business permit to the electronic games operator over the past several years when the area of its operation does not actually fall within the jurisdiction of the municipality that deprived the city the income from such operations over the past several years.
By HENT
