Spearheading the class suit is the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) which has continuously assailed Ordinance No. 398 series of 2016 requiring mandatory public legal liability insurance coverage of businesses with capitalization and gross income of P150,000 and above except those within public markets, medical and dental clinics, accounting office and law offices and those with existing insurance.
“Taxation without representation is tyranny,” PGKM chair Ruperto Cruz said referencing the famous quotation that helped launch the American Revolution.
Cruz said many questions are still left unanswered.
“What is gross sales? What floor area? How much does Angeles Electric Corp. pay or SM City Mall or Marquee Mall or Robinsons?” Cruz wanted to know. “What about Jenra or Savers Mall? People should know how much they paid for their insurance coverage.”
“Is it true that Marquee Mall of the Ayalas paid only a minimum measly sum of P1,500 for insurance?” he asked. “If so, this is clearly a selective coverage of the ordinance and it is also discriminatory.”
“Who will be held liable if a person suffers injury in a common area of the mall if tenants are the only ones being covered by insurance? It’s not clear at all,” he remarked.
“What about the fastfood chains of the friends of the mayor, how much did they pay?” Cruz asked, noting that some fastfood chains owned by known friends of Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan are located outside the malls and not covered by the exemptions.
“On the other hand, why will you exempt lawyers from the coverage when some of them like (Estelito) Titong Mendoza are the highest paid lawyers? Some lawyers charge P250,000 just for acceptance fee alone. How can you exempt this?” he asked.
“There is discrimination here and many of those who paid said they were not invited to any public hearing on the matter,” Cruz claimed.
Dee, Uy
“It can also be recalled that several years ago when the late Anthony Dee was proposing to provide cable TV connections to Angeles he was not given a permit by the city council which allowed the monopoly of ACCTN owned by Dennis Uy,” said Cruz. “Ikwa ng mete ere pebaluban Angeles (Up to the time of (Dee’s) death he was not given a permit in Angeles).”
The people should know how much Dennis Uy paid since his office is located inside the Clark Freeport Zone but his services are in the city, noted Cruz.
“But what is very notable here and suspicious is the policy of cash-tocash payment basis only since no checks are accepted as reported by some businessmen,” he pointed out. At least four insurance companies have set up offices at the lobby of city hall – Standard, Western Guarantee, Pacific Union, and Liberty.
“These are never heard of insurance companies. Why only cash?” he asked. “This could open the fl oodgates to corruption.”
“Are these insurance firms good or are they fl y-by-night firms? How were they accredited? What were the requirements? What are their profiles?”
The only people who will benefit from this ordinance are the “commissioners” of the insurance firms and the insurance companies themselves, Cruz said.
The money should first come into the coffers of government like the GSIS or SSS, he added.
Cruz said he got some reports that some city hall employees advise their businessmen friends to declare only a minimum amount of their capitalization to escape paying the mandatory insurance coverage while some bring it to the lowest to secure a minimum amount to be paid.
Cheats
“Mas merakal mamirayit kareng tau, ing tuturu pa reng keng treasurer’s office (There are now a lot of businessmen who cheat and personnel from the treasurer’s office are the ones teaching them),” he alleged.
“The government is the one on the losing end,” he noted. “Very favorable ya ing ordinance kareng kaluguran ning mayor (The ordinance is very favorable only to the friends of the mayor).”
“If this is for the protection of the traders, then what kind of protection is this?’ he asked.
“There should have been a public hearing at the city hall where everybody is invited that is why we are preparing a class suit,” said Cruz.
“They 1-2-3 (fast tracking the first, second and third readings) the ordinance in faraway Sapang Bato. Very lamentable. They cheated the people because all of a sudden a new ordinance is passed without them knowing it. Let’s do away with these kinds of politicians,” he said.
“It has become their normal that whenever they want to railroad an ordinance that they do not want to be opposed, they hide it from the public and keep it in secret that is why they had the purported public hearing held in Sapang Bato,” observed Cruz.
“Who attended the public hearing? The tricycle drivers and the residents who are not even covered by the ordinance?” Where is the minutes of the meeting in the Sapang Bato session? he asked.
Clearly there is something wrong here, Cruz said.
“This ordinance is just another redundancy considering that the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) already has the power to close down an erring business enterprise,” he said.
