DESPITE a temporary closure order issued by the Cebu City Attorney?s Office in September, the Bakak Resto Bar Ltd. is back in business.

For defying the order, City Hall may impose sanctions which may include ?permanent closure,? said City Legal Officer Joseph Bernaldez.

After media reports surfaced about the bar?s operation and that liquor was being served there, personnel from the City Treasurer?s Office visited the bar Wednesday night.

The bar owner showed a notice signed by a Cebu City councilor.

A reliable source within City Hall, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the councilor wrote that he had asked the permission of Mayor Tomas Osmeña to allow the bar to resume operations.

When Bernaldez checked further, he learned that the notice only specified that the bar would be allowed to reopen, but not to serve liquor.

The bar was ordered closed last September for operating without a business permit and serving liquor to customers within 100 meters from a school. The bar is right across the University of San Carlos? Business and Law Building.

A city ordinance prohibits establishments from serving liquor within 100 meters of a school, hospital, church, and public parks, among other locations.

Bakak resumed operations last Nov. 12, open to the public from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. City Hall confirmed that the establishment was again serving liquor.

Bernaldez said the mayor suggested ?permanent? closure of Bakak though the mayor himself said that ?permanent? meant ?six months.?

The city legal officer said a closure would be redundant, since the September closure order was still in effect.

Glen Giltura, manager of Bakak, declined to comment on the mayor?s threat.

Giltura, showed his permits to operate, business tax payment certificate, a sanitary permit issued by the City Health Department, a fire safety certificate and certificate of registration from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Eight signs with the warning ?Minors not Allowed? were postedin the premises.

Giltura said business was limited ever since the bar reopened last week with seven tables instead of its usual 20 tables.

Giltura credited the decline in customers to their strict policy of not serving liquor to people below 21 years of age.

?It?s different than before. We?re now selective with our customers. We don?t even sell to any student, because most of them are minors,? Giltura said in Cebuano.

With the decline in customers, he said they could only afford to rehire nine of their original 20 employees since reopening.