No camping out, please

Following complaints of too much noise during ungodly hours as the holiday season approaches, a barangay official in Marikina City has urged the city council to pass an ordinance discouraging the use of tents during celebrations.

Rizalina Teope, chair of Barangay Fortune, said tents are frequently used as temporary shelters during wakes, birthdays, baptisms, among others, making them usual venues where “public nuisance” abounds.

“We can enjoy ourselves as long as it is at the right place and appropriate time,” she said.

She said that she had been receiving complaints about loud noises made in populated communities, usually arising from the use of videoke machines there in the dead hours of the night.

This, Teope said, was despite an existing local ordinance that requires residents to observe the “maximum allowable noise levels” specified for each period of time in a day under Ordinance No. 100, series of 2010.

Sanctions have been put in place for violators of the law, ranging from warnings for the first offense to P1,000 each for succeeding offenses.

In a statement, Mayor Del de Guzman reiterated the need for people to comply with the said ordinance. He said that while there was no intent on the part of the local government to “stop the enjoyment” of anyone, it was still “everyone’s right” to live in a “peaceful environment” and have a “good night’s sleep.”