Let us revisit the parking pay at the malls

We should all be thankful for the repetitive advisory aired by the combined efforts of PAG-ASA, local government officials and media people, almost pleading for us, for our own sake, to prepare for super typhoon Yolanda. It mattered to most of us really when the howler hit us. Those of us who heeded the call were more ready than those who simply dismissed it for any inane description like "overacting".

The truth is, in all modesty, whether or not a storm is on the horizon, I always keep in store things we always need in case of emergencies. Call it force of habit. Take the case of such a simple thing as dry cell batteries. Quite often, I buy several of these in different sizes, D, AA, medium and even AAA. I prepare the D size for my transistor radio and flashlights, the AA's for items like my razor and remote control devices and the triple A's for a host of other electronic gadgetry.

My grandchildren know which drawer I keep these batteries. Every time they need some for their toys, they just let me know of such need and they assume, quite correctly, that I have given them the right to open my drawer and get whatever piece to use to make their toys work. Sometimes, they only tell me that I have nothing more in stock and then I make it a point to refill such items in my drawer.

When the advisory came to us last Tuesday, I found out that I had no more batteries in store. It dawned on me that following the October 15, earthquake, we readied all our emergency equipment and in the process used the batteries. When things normalized, we did not return the batteries to our drawer. Rather we allowed our kids, because classes were suspended, to play with their electronic toys and the batteries came handy.

So, I had to rush to a mall to buy just that item for replenishment. The first shop I went to ran out of stock. In a matter of minutes, I got out and planned to go to the next mall. At the exit gate, my driver asked from me for the payment for the parking ticket. Then, the same thing happened at the next mall. There were no more stocks of batteries and I had to find somewhere else to buy the item. Again, there was this parking fee to be paid.

True to the off tangent nature of this column, I will deviate to an entirely different topic. This article is not about the super typhoon that ravaged many parts of the Visayas. It is not even about my reserve batteries. After all, Yolanda or not, I always keep some in my drawer. This is about my realization that the malls in the city make a killing asking their customers to pay for parking.

Webster's Dictionary defines a mall as public area promenade with shade trees and designed for pedestrian walk. That concept is the ideal nature and kind of malls. Actually, the malls that we have in our city are not strictly malls. The use of this word to apply to our day-to-day activity is a sort of a corruption of the word.

In our city, malls, of the corrupted context, are made for people to shop in. That is the present order of things. The structures are built primarily for businessmen to sell merchandise. These buildings are not erected with shady trees for people to walk under and while their time away.

In order to make the businesses in the malls flourish, mall owners have to attract customers. Without customers, the mall business is doomed to fail. One sure way of magnetizing people go to the malls is to provide them with enough spaces for their vehicles to park. So, parking spaces in the malls are not for the benefit of the customers. These are necessary ways and implements that serve the objectives of businessmen operating in the malls.

Now, if that is the case, when mall owners/operators ask their customers to pay parking fees they are, in a manner of saying, enriching themselves at the expense of their customers! In this light, may I ask our lawmakers to examine this situation and probably come up with a legislation that should free customers from paying parking fees?