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Closure order coming up against Jadewell

BAGUIO CITY (Jan. 12) — Mayor Braulio Yaranon told media in the mayor’s forum on Jan. 12 that an appropriate closure order will be served to Jadewell Parking Systems now that the city has refused to grant it a business permit. He revoked and cancelled Jadewell’s business permit with an executive order last week.

“Any establishment operating without permit may be closed for the interest of the public,” Yaranon said defending the closure order against Jadewell.

Public parking area cannot be under private control

Yaranon cited a Supreme Court ruling that any portion of a public road cannot be appropriated by a private entity for its private use. The mayor said that Jadewell did not even have any business permit since December 31, 2003 for the Ganza parking lot which it now controls.

The said parking lot was developed through public funds for promenaders at the Burnham Park. The mayor said the city used to collect only P5 per vehicle and it used to earn P85,000 monthly. Jadewell, he said, collects P20 for the first two hours and P10 per succeeding hour but remits only 20% of its collection to the city’s coffers.

Yaranon also noted that Jadewell has been operating and collecting parking fees for vehicles parked on the roadside in five more areas aside from Harrison Road where it had earlier secured a permit. This, he said, is unlawful, prejudicial and contrary to public welfare and interest. He also said that it is disadvantageous to the city.

Authority to enforce laws?

Jadewell earned the ire of motorists when it imposed traffic rules, collected parking fees and forcibly clamped and eventually towed vehicles parked in its “parking lots’ along major roads here. Baguio residents and motorists alike opposed it but it continued to operate on its assertion that it was granted an authority to dispose of its functions by the administration of then Mayor Bernardo Vergara.

Yaranon, however, maintained that Jadewell should not have used the business permit issued by Vergara to implement and enforce traffic rules and collect fines and fees using its official receipts and approriating for its private benefit the public revenue it collected. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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