Labella tasked to correct errors in liquor ordinance

CEBU, Philippines - Councilor Edgardo Labella has been tasked by the Cebu City Council to settle the conflict between the provisions of the city’s liquor ordinance and what is reflected in the liquor permit.

Labella, chairman of the committee on laws and ordinances of the Cebu City Council, said he will try his best to submit his report to the body during their regular session on Wednesday.

Some liquor dealers are complaining because their customers who are below 21 years of age were apprehended by a City Hall liquor inspection team and the establishment owners were ordered to pay P5,000 for every person caught.

According to the City Hall liquor inspection team that City Ordinance 1413 or the Cebu City Liquor Ordinance provides that only those persons age 21 years old and above shall be served with liquor.

But the liquor dealers argued that although it is provided for in the Liquor Ordinance that it would be illegal for them to serve liquor to persons below 21 years of age they are allowed to do it based on their liquor permit.

The copy of the liquor permit issued by the Cebu City treasurer’s office and signed by Elisa M. Gonzalez, the chief of the business permit section, states that the liquor dealers are allowed to serve liquor products to persons above 18 years old.

The City Hall liquor inspection team intensified their campaign against dealers who serve liquor to minors after the girlfriend of Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s son Miguel, got drunk in one of the city’s karaoke bars in Osmeña Boulevard, near the University of Cebu.

City Ordinance 1413 prohibits the sale and serving of liquor within residential zones of urban areas and within a 100-meter radius from schools, hospitals, churches and other public places.

The mayor’s wife, Margot Osmeña also asked the authorities to intensify campaign against the karaoke bars that cater to minors. —Rene U. Borromeo/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)