Tondaligan shed owners given new ultimatum
SOME 100 owners of picnic sheds at Tondaligan Park have been given by the city government another grace period to settle their arrears in business taxes amounting to P1.7 million as of February 2008.
City Engineer Virginia Rosario said Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. himself set the new grace period after the delinquent stallholders reneged on their promise to pay their arrears on March 15.
The new deadline was set after Fernandez vetoed Ordinance No. 1914-2008 passed by the city council providing for the condonation of penalties, interest and surcharges on the principal accounts of individual shed owners. The council did not override the veto.
The mayor said he vetoed the ordinance because it was prejudicial to public welfare and unfair to the shed owners who had been religiously and regularly paying their taxes to the city government.
At the same time, he noted that the ordinance was enacted without a public hearing as required by Section 87 of the Local Government Code. It was also deemed “improper” since the ordinance was enacted without any request for condonation from the mayor.
There are about 150 shed owners operating at Tondaligan Park, and only 36 are religiously paying their dues.
“This is quite unfair,” Rosario said.
A list obtained from the City Legal Office showed that some of the shed owners have arrears dating back to 2004.
“We are appealing to them to pay their dues. What we are asking is just a small part of their income in their business as tax to the city government,” Rosario said.
Rosario and City Legal Officer George Mejia held another dialogue with the delinquent shed owners to inform the latter of the new grace period, with a warning that if they fail anew, they must tear down their sheds and leave the premises.
“Sheds of delinquent owners will be demolished by the city government if they fail to do so on their own,” she said.
The sheds at Tondaligan Park that were lined up close to the beach like a long locomotive, completely blocking the view of the sea, are now clustered and built using a uniform design.–LM
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