LEGISLATORS have backed the six months extension given to small businesses in city streets.
Councilor Mylen Yaranon, in a resolution, expressed the city council’s support to the agreement reached between the Baguio City Permits and Licensing Division, City Mayors Office, newsstand vendors and watch repair proprietors extend for six months the stay of the latter in their current locations before the implementation of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) memorandum.
The City, in a compromise, gave newsstand vendors and watch repair proprietors time to comply with the six-meter setback from the sidewalk or find relocation sites to do their business for 2021.
“The Permits and Licensing Division-City Mayors Office (PLD-CMO) intends to regulate newspaper stand vendors and watch repair proprietors on sidewalks of the city. They have been given until the end of the year to operate in their current locations. After that time, they will be treated an obstruction. The PLD-CMO is acting on DILG memo circular 2020-145, which mandates local governments to clear roads and sidewalks of obstruction,” the council said.
The legislative body acknowledged the move of the PLD-CMO and the DILG had caused an uproar not only among newsstand vendors and watch repair proprietors but also among the ranks of local media practitioners and the general public of the City of Baguio.
“This is because these newsstands and watch repair stands have been a common sight in the city that, in its unique way, is part of the spirit that defines the soul of Baguio City as a whole,” the council added.
The resolution was approved in a special session this week by the entire legislative body and said the body welcomes the development.
