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This won’t go down easy.
“Manila city councilors are pushing for an ordinance that will allow customers of commercial establishments, including shopping malls, to park their vehicles free of charge for up to 12 hours a day,” report Jerome Aning and Nathaniel R. Melican in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The report noted: “The measure, authored by Councilors Joel Chua, Ernesto Isip Jr. and Ernesto Dionisio Jr., requires all commercial establishments and malls to let their customers park free of charge for six hours.”
The measure also states that “if the customers reach an aggregate minimum purchase (with receipts) of PHP500 from the establishment, they will be entitled to six more hours of free parking.” However, the free parking period should not exceed 12 hours in one day.
To justify their proposal, ordinance’s authors invoked Section 16 of the Local Government Code of 1991 “which mandates local government units to ensure and support the general welfare of its residents.”
The report pointed out: “Violation of the ordinance will result in the cancelation of the establishment’s business permit or its nonrenewal, should there be an application pending in city hall.”
However, mall representatives invited to the hearing on Wed, March 25, aired their opposition to the ordinance.
Chua related: “Their main concern was that the ordinance can be abused, that motorists will use their parking spaces even though they are not really customers of the establishment.”
Chua explained that “as a compromise, he proposed an amendment to the ordinance: Instead of getting free parking for six hours automatically, motorists can only enjoy it if they present receipts with an accumulated value of PHP500.”
But then, as he related, “However, (the mall representatives) later claimed that they need the parking charges for the car park’s maintenance. They seem to have other reasons for opposing our measure.”
Photo: MorgueFile
