A gas company has sought the court’s intervention to stop City of Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong from issuing conditional business permits to a Malaysian-owned liquified petroleum gas (LPG) facility that lacked fire safety certification.
Pryce Gases Inc. (PGI), through its assistant vice president for corporate administrative services Darwin Sarraga, lodged a civil suit before the Regional Trial Court for the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order, an injunction, and a Writ of Mandamus against Chiong.
PGI’s lawyer Julius Ceasar Entise said that in 2014, Chiong issued several Conditional Mayor’s Business Permits in favor of Petronas Energy Philippines Inc. for the operation of two huge LPG storage tanks in barangay Langtad despite the absence of a Fire Safety Inspection Certificate (FSIC).
Entise cited section 5 of Republic Act 9514 otherwise known as the Fire Code of the Philippines which states that “no occupancy permit, business permit, or permit to operate shall be issued without securing a Fire Safety Inspection Certificate from the Bureau of Fire Protection.”
“Clearly, the public respondent (Chiong), in issuing the aforementioned assailed Mayor’s Business Permits, committed an unltra vires act or an act which is characterized by grave abuse of discretion amounting to excess of and lack of its jurisdiction,” the lawyer said.
Entise said the mayor will likely issue yet another Conditional Mayor’s Business Permit to Petronas in the succeeding years.
He said the court should put an end to the illegal act.
Last year, Pryce Gas Inc. asked the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas to investigate Chiong and City Administrator Arthur Villamor for allegedly giving “undue advantage” to Petronas .
But Mayor Chiong denied committing any irregularity in issuing conditional business permits to the Malaysian firm, saying the city fire marshal and the Bureau of Fire Protection regional office (BFP-7) found no violations at the LPG terminal of Petronas.
The mayor said that before he issued the permit, the Naga Fire Department conducted a re-inspection at the site last January 2014.
The BFP earlier didn’t renew the FSIC of the Petronas facility when it expired last Dec. 31, 2013.
The following year, Chief Supt. Carlito Romero, acting national director of the BFP, reversed the ruling of the BFP-7 saying the Petronas facility has not violated fire safety standards, particularly on safety distance requirements.
Chiong said he has yet to receive a copy of Romero’s ruling.