CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – No separation of Church and state here, and throw in business too.
The Metropolitan Cathedral and SM City San Fernando Downtown recently signed an agreement with the city government to open their parking spaces for free to those doing official transactions at city hall.
“Actually a form of PPP (public-private partnership) that saves Fernandinos and business people from the inconvenience of looking for parking space within the vicinity of city hall when they transact business, especially in these peak months of December and January when business licenses are renewed and new permits acquired,” said Councilor Noel Tulabut of the agreement which he initiated.
Downtown San Fernando suffers from chronic parking space problem. To run till the end of January 2014, the agreement designated reserved parking areas at the cathedral’s patio as well as two parking levels at the SM City San Fernando Downtown for clients of city hall’s business permits and licensing division.
“This is one way of making our investors and cabalens feel convenient and comfortable when doing business at city hall. It’s the least we can do actually, considering their contribution to the economic growth of the city,” Tulabut said.
Monsignor Eugene Reyes, rector of the Metropolitan Cathedral, said the agreement simply formalized a “long given arrangement” of the cathedral’s patio serving as parking lot for employees and those transacting business at city hall.
For her part, SM City San Fernando Downtown Mall Manager Lana Erroba, said the “freeing” two parking levels at her mall “is part of our corporate social responsibility in the service of the Fernandinos.”
