BAGUIO CITY – The City Permits and Licensing Division under the City Mayor’s Office reported a significant increase in the number of business permit applications during the first month of the present administration compared to those who applied for the issuance of permits during the same period last year.
City Permits and Licensing Officer Allan Abayao disclosed that from July 1-31, 2019, 1,020 permits were issued by the said office, 31.08 percent more than the 731 permits they issued during the same month last year.
However, he claimed that the number of special permits issued in July this year was 1,389 was lower by 11.35 percent compared to the 1,567 special permits issued in the same period last year.
Last year, the city government issued a total of 28,250 regular and special permits, 20,709 of which were classified as regular permits while 7,541 were special permits.
From January 1 to July 31 this year, Abayao stated that the city government issued 20,037 regular permits and 5,709 special permits or a total of 25,738 regular and special permits.
In terms of closure orders, Abayao revealed Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong issued 498 closure orders with 460 orders already served to the establishments while 38 have yet to be implemented.
He explained that 235 of the issued closure orders were issued by former Mayor Mauricio g. Domogan and were re-issued by Mayor Magalong for compliance.
Abayao stated there had been a consistent increase in the number of regular business permits issued by their office over the past 5 years and even during the first 7 months of this year which shows the city remains to be a favourite investment hub of individuals interested to do business in this trade and commerce center of the Cordillera.
Based on the statistics obtained from the City Permits and Licensing Office, the city government issued some 17,158 regular permits in 2014, 18,370 regular permits in 2015, 19,083 regular permits in 2016, 19,590 regular permits in 2017 and 20,709 regular permits last year.
Abayao stipulated the city government can exceed the number of regular permits issued last year based on the trend of increasing number of applications for issuance of regular permits.
Earlier, the city government streamlined the issuance of business permits with applicants being issued their permits in less than hour once their requirements are complete and fed into the system for processing.
Abayao appealed to the applicants for business permits to ensure their documentary requirements are complete when processing their applications with their office so that they can be issued the same within an hour after their documents shall have been inputted into the system.
By Dexter A. See