City Hall takes over Parañaque village road

The Parañaque City government took control of a commercial road from a subdivision homeowners’ association over the weekend following complaints from business establishment owners over "exorbitant" entry fees.

Accompanied by police officers and City Hall officials, Mayor Florencio Bernabe went to Aguirre street in United BF Homes last Saturday to oversee the replacement of village guards with barangay watchmen.

The mayor said City Hall was merely implementing an old city ordinance that declared the street a commercial road.

Business establishments on Aguirre street have assailed the United BF Homes Association (UBFHA) for the unjust collection of fees and fines for supply delivery vehicles.

"We received so many complaints from business establishments inside over the collection of fines," lawyer Nelson Lacambra, the mayor’s spokesman, told The STAR yesterday.

Sources said that on top of the UBFHA requirement for owners of business establishments on Aguirre street to purchase village stickers, all delivery trucks have to pay a "gate pass" fee of P200 each time they enter the subdivision.

The complainants, who are forced to shoulder the fees paid by the delivery vehicles of their suppliers, said they can no longer keep up with the association’s fee requirements since they also have to pay for all the delivery charges.

They also denounced a circular from the UBFHA, which prohibits delivery vehicles from parking in front of the establishments.

Lacambra said village guards would scratch the stickers on the vehicles of the violator, who is then required to purchase a new sticker.

UBFHA officers, led by their president Celso Reyes, insisted that the local government did not have the right to carry out such action because of the lack of jurisdiction.

"We are a private subdivision so they cannot arbitrarily take over. As for the issue at hand, it is our right to collect fees from vehicles entering our subdivision because we are the ones maintaining the roads," Reyes said in a separate interview.

He explained that the local government should not impose its own rules since it never spent money for the maintenance of the village.

In response to City Hall’s takeover, the UBFHA distributed flyers to residents denouncing Bernabe’s actions.

Reyes said the mayor cannot bank on the city ordinance declaring the street a commercial road since there is pending complaint against it.

He said the complaint, which has reached the Supreme Court, was a challenge to the legality of the ordinance.

"I don’t know why Mayor Bernabe is doing this when I think he has nothing to gain from it. What he did is certainly against the interest of our 10,000 homeowners," the UBFHA president said.

He added that they would file administrative and criminal complaints against the mayor with the Office of the Ombudsman.