The City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) will issue notices of violations (NOVs) for all structures without buildings permits in the city starting September.
This was announced by CBAO Asst. Dept. Head Engr. Stephen Capuyan who said this will be applicable to all buildings — residential and commercial, ongoing or finished and whether located in titled or untitled lots.
Presidential Decree (PD 1096) or the National Building Code of the Philippines prohibits construction of structures without building permits and violators are liable to pay an administrative fine of P10,000.
Payment of the fine however does not mean that owners of the structures would no longer need to secure the building permits.
“The notion that that they already are exempt from getting a permit once they paid the fine is wrong. They still have to get a permit even if they have paid the fine,” Capuyan stressed.
Capuyan said that CBAO has been implementing a building permit promotions program encouraging building owners to obtain building permits to legitimize the status of their structures since April after Mayor Benjamin Magalong ordered an aggressive stance against illegal constructions.
Through the program, the CBAO sought out through letters the qualified building owners informing them of the status of their buildings and advising them to apply and process their permits within a period.
The letter also informed them that failure to comply would force the city to issue a notice of violation and commence the proceedings prescribed under the building code.
The CBAO said the program is expected to have covered 50 percent of the city’s 128 barangays by October and so by September, they will start issuing NOVs to those who failed to comply.
The CBAO said the city has been collecting an average of P4 million from building permit violations since 2021.
The revenue is expected to increase when the CBAO imposes the penalty to the all the unpermitted structures identified by the CBAO in its census numbering about 96,000. ** Aileen P. Refuerzo
