Indiscriminate building permit issuance hit
REPRESENTATIVE Mark Cojuangco of the 5th District, one of the areas heavily devastated by typhoon Pepeng and the ensuing floods, is prepared to file a bill criminalizing the indiscriminate granting of building permits by local or city engineers to structures which impede waterways.
Cojuangco, in a local radio interview on Oct. 18, said, “Isa– suggest ko po sa mga solution, gawing criminal ang pagbibigay ng maling building permit or at the very least dalawang beses na mag-violate, tanggalan ng lisensiya, hindi na pwedeng magtrabaho as government engineer.”
Cojuangco, who heads the House probe committee looking into the recent massive flooding in the province, said he will put forward this idea to the committee.
He noted that the existing penalty for violation of a building permit is only P500, which is “peanuts to building owners constructing multi-million pesos structures”.
He said he hopes Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago would listen to his suggestion and provide a provision in her bill to criminalize acts of issuing building permits to illegal structures and to disqualify government engineers responsible as well for the acquisition of right-of-way along waterways.
Santiago proposed to penalize persons or firms putting up buildings and establishments that encroach waterways.
“Pagkakataon ito na itama yong mga ilang mali na nangyari (na) pag-e-encroach po ng tao sa right of way sa easement ng waterways,” he said.
Cojuangco added that there is also the difficult task of having to relocated people who have built residences that likewise encroach in waterways.
But this must be done with political will, he said, to prevent a similar massive flooding in the future.#
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