City withholds biz permit of 50 companies

The Mandaue City Government has held in abeyance the business permits of 50 cargo and logistic companies in the North Reclamation Area (NRA) in line with the City’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP).

Lawyer Mae Elaine Bathan, chief of staff of the mayor, said the areas where these companies are located are intended only for commercial establishments.

Based on the CLUP, the areas are classified as “planned unit of development 1,” which will be used by the City for civic and trade.

With this, the City officials led by Bathan met with the af- fected companies yesterday since Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing, who is currently in Thailand, wants to follow the city’s zoning ordinance but also doesn’t want to severe ties with the establishments.

According to Bathan, the affected companies asked the City officials to review the CLUP and possibly identify a special area in NRA for them.

“They are aware that there is a land use plan and they are also aware of the classification. However, they are requesting for a review of the CLUP and see if there is that possibility that there will be a special zone that can be created for them,” she said.

During the previous administration, Bathan explained that the zoning board issued clearances to cargo and logistic companies so they can process their business permits.

A condition was then set that they can only operate their businesses until Dec. 31, 2016.

“But we cannot issue clearances to establishments, if and when, we find out that your actual use of the property do not conform to the zoning ordinance of the City,” she said.

This is the reason, Bathan said, a lot of establishments were not issued business permits by the City this year.

The lawyer said they would like to come up with a solution to solve the problem.

For the meantime, though, she said the City will allow the companies to continue operating since Bathan will still make a report about the meeting and submit it to the mayor.

Quisumbing will then decide whether the business establishments will stop operating or look for other means to solve the problem. /

The bottomline is they want to continue to operate. ATTY. MAE ELAINE BATHAN chief of staff of Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing