‘Issuing temporary occupancy permits, illegal’

THE Cebu City Office of the Building Official (OBO) must do away with the practice of issuing temporary and partial occupancy permits because this is illegal, said Councilor Nestor Archival.

An electrical engineer by profession, Archival said there is no such thing as partial occupancy permit in the National Building Code. The issuance of such a permit will also encourage applicants not to pursue other requirements in securing construction permits and an occupancy permit.

“Partial occupancy is not in the law. That is illegal. You do not release temporary permits and partial occupancy,” Archival told City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez, who is also the OIC building official.

The lady engineer appeared before the City Council’s budget hearing last Tuesday. She told Archival that the issuance of temporary permits is a “practice” at OBO even before she assumed office.

Partial occupancy is normally issued when building construction is nearing completion and there is a need, for example, to energize the elevator system, she said.

“There is no such thing as partial occupancy. Ug mag sunog kinsay manubag? Kita, (If there is fire, who will be held to account? Us.)” Archival told Enriquez.

Archival wants to sit down with Enriquez and councilor Roberto Cabarrubias, a civil engineer, to discuss OBO concerns. He also called Enriquez’s attention on the practice of an engineer assigned at OBO on the issuance of temporary permits even without verifying the requirements submitted to him.

There is a need for OBO to keep a list of all the registered engineers and architects in the city to verify the authenticity of signatures appearing on the building plan, he added.

What’s happening may be an indication of the need to subject OBO engineers and architects to re-training, according to the councilor.

Enriquez said OBO receives three to five permit applications per day and processes these in 10 to 15 days.

Heading two offices may already be too much for Enriquez, said Councilor Margot Osmeña, the council’s budget committee chairperson.

“Maybe you do not know all these are happening because it’s too much (for you to handle two offices),” said Osmeña.

Councilor Sisinio Andales also wants accusations of extortion in the processing of OBO permits to be looked into since this is affecting the image of the city.

Archival said streamlining of requirements will help prevent applicants from repeatedly going back to the OBO office located at the ground floor of the city hall legislative building.