Cebu City legal office upholds zoning board’s authority to impose penalty for violations

Cebu City Legal Officer, Lawyer Rey Gealon. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Legal Office has upheld the authority of the city planning board to impose penalties for violations of the National Building Code.

The CLO rendered its opinion in response to an endorsement by the Cebu City Zoning Board of a request asking that the penalties for failing to secure a building permit be waived.

In a letter written on behalf of Genara Pintoy, Peter Higgins asked the zoning board to waive the P500 per-square- meter penalty imposed by the zoning board for the issuance of a variance for a 75-percent completed building located at Ditio Bonbonan, A. Lopez, Barangay Labangon, Cebu City.

According to Higgins, they have worked with Architect Florante Catalan, officer-in-charge of the city’s Office of building Official, to become legal after they received the notice of illegal construction.

The CLO maintained that constructing a building without the necessary permit would violate a city ordinance and the National Building Code.

Lawyer Rey Gealon, city legal officer, said that the CLO would uphold the authority of the zoning board to impose penalties on construction with violations of the law.

Gealon, in a text message, explained that this was pursuant to zoning board’s power under City Ordinance 1656 for violations of the provisions of PD 1096, otherwise known as “The National Building Code”.

“There has to be “teeth” in our regulations lest we will just be made a “laughingstock” of erring building owners and contractors if there is more breach than observance of the same,” he said.

He added that this would serve as a strong message that “the mayor was serious in upholding the rule of law.”/dbs