By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff Reporter
Batac
City—As Batac councilor Lucky Rene Bunye
delivered a privilege speech amplifying the concerns of local water refilling
stations due to the influx of mobile water refilling stations, Batac Vice Mayor
Ronald Allan M. Nalupta reiterated that the city government supports “free
enterprise”.
In his speech, Bunye said
local refilling stations are questioning the entry of water stations from other
towns. He stressed that the local businesses’ sales are affected and that they
are saying the entry of outsiders is unfair since they are not paying business permit
fees and other local taxes.
Bunye also mentioned the
issue about sanitation as local refilling stations follow the required process
and they do not know if the “outsiders” have strict sanitation processes.
He added that the local
refilling stations are willing to hold a dialogue with concerned city officials
to settle the problem.
In his reaction, Nalupta
explained that all types of legal business are entitled to operate and this
could not be prohibited. All the city government can do is to regulate them.
He added that in his opinion,
instead of preventing the refilling stations from outside Batac to operate, the
city’s licensing division should identify them and ask them to apply for a
business permit, specifically a mobile vending permit.
Nalupta pointed out that the
city already has an ordinance for mobile vending and for those who do not have
a permanent business establishment in the city.
The mobile vending permit is
only intended for those engaged in business that move from one place to another
to sell their wares. The water refilling stations in question are included here
since they only deliver water by the gallons in the city. The said permit is
for one year.
Also reacting to this, Batac
councilor Averlard Ibarra Crisostomo said he believes business is about
competition and free enterprise should be respected.
Crisostomo added that other
businesses have also the right to sell to other places citing an example of the
bottled water in supermarkets which comes from outside Batac.
He, however clarified that he
is not saying that Bunye or the local refilling stations are wrong but is only
explaining the concept of free enterprise.
Crisostomo advised all local business
owners to be more competitive saying: “Ken
nasken kuma a pasayaaten tayo iti businesses tayo tapnun ditoy latta pang-gatangan dagiti constituents tayon”.
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