Tom orders 2 lechon branches closed for lack of biz permit

City Hall closed two branches of a local lechon chain for operating without a business permit, a violation of the Omnibus Tax Ordinance.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the Rico’s Lechon branch along Panagdait Street in Barangay Mabolo has been operating without a business permit for the last five years while its newly opened branch along Escario Street has been in the area for the last six months.

“One restaurant has not renewed its business permit for five years. The other never had a business permit at all. Both are million-peso businesses, not carenderias. Per due process, the City Treasurer gave two warnings over a span of months and City Legal issued a show cause order. Still no compliance,” Osmeña said on his Facebook post.

In a statement, the management of Rico’s Lechon said they already applied for issuance of a new business permit even before the closure order was served.

Requirements were already complied with and submitted to City Hall. They are now waiting for the permit issuance,their statement added.

Personnel from the city’s Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) team visited the two lechon branches on Thursday morning to serve the closure order signed by mayor Osmeña on August 2.

The closure orders were addressed to Melanie Oyas and Enrico Dionsin.

Probe personnel first visited the Escario branch then the Panagdait branch.

City hall records show that the Escario branch has been operating without a business permit since December 14, 2016 prompting the issuance of notices to comply on June 1 and July 13.

In the absence of a formal reply, Osmeña issued a show cause order on July 21.

The Panagdait branch was found to be operating with a business permit which expired on August 24, 2012.

But the two stores were already closed during the Probe visit.

Notices which read: “We are moving to a new location to serve you better!” were posted on the glass walls of the two establishments.

Read more...