BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered concerned departments to conduct an extensive review of the pertinent provisions of Ordinance No. 085, series of 2017 that mandated the collection of parking fees for motor vehicles that will park in the parking spaces around the city hall.
The local chief executive underscored that he is not in favour of collecting parking fees from owners of motor vehicles who will be transacting official business with various offices in city hall considering that they are clients who should be guaranteed available parking slots so as not to delay their supposed transactions.
However, he said that he supports the collection of parking fees from owners of motor vehicles who simply park their vehicles in the parking spaces in city hall and transact businesses with other offices outside city hall or go to the market to oversee their businesses because the parking spaces in city hall are for the clients of the different offices and not for businessmen.
“We will call on the officials of the concerned departments so that we will try to look into the implementation of the pertinent provisions of the ordinance so that we will not prejudice legitimate clients of the local government,” Domogan stressed.
Based on the ordinance, the local government will be collecting the amount of P5 from owners of motor vehicles who will park in the parking spaces in city hall for the first hour and another P2 for every succeeding hour.
While there are motorists who favour the collection of the minimal parking fees from them to be able to park in designated parking slots in city hall, some of the motorists also raised an uproar against the collection of parking fees because it did not allegedly pass through the required public hearing before the measure was enacted.
Further, Domogan expressed his support to opening up the city hall premises for pay parking purposes during weekends and holidays to help provide alternative pay parking areas, especially for the increasing number of weekend visitors coming to spend their well deserved break in the city.
According to him, there is a need for the local government to open the city hall premises during weekends and holidays to provide motorists with available parking areas for them not to clog in the available pay parking areas in the central business district area.
He explained the local government should not add up to the concerns of clients of the different offices by collecting the prescribed parking fees from them but instead make parking spaces readily available for them considering that they have important transactions with the local government, especially in the payment of taxes and other officials transactions with other offices.
He appealed to the public for proper understanding of the issue considering that appropriate actions are now being undertaken by the concerned offices to lessen the impact of the collection of the parking fees in city hall to the clients of the different offices and that the necessary decision on the matter will be handed down the soonest so as not to cause confusion among them.
By Dexter A. See
