QC firms to benefit from faster renewal of permits, licenses

Ninety five percent of the estimated 50,000 business establishments in Quezon City stand to benefit from the shortened processing time for the issuance of business permits beginning January.

Quezon City Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte Jr. has signed an executive order simplifying the procedure in the renewal of business or Mayor’s permit from the present several weeks to five working days without any need for a follow-up on the part of the applicant.

Belmonte said the order was designed to expedite the release of permits to business establishment owners renewing their business permits and at the same time to protect the safety of the public patronizing their establishments in the city.

The business firms need only to submit their application with a minimum requirement like barangay clearance and location clearance in case of location changes, the mayor said.

The remaining five percent of establishments in Quezon City that require the use of equipment and machineries or those that expose individual risk caused by overcrowding, prolonged confinement, exposure to toxic elements, environmental or health hazards are required to submit their application for renewal, safety inspection certification, sanitary certificate permit, and the certificate of electrical inspection.

Clearances and certificates issued within 12 months prior to the date of the application will be valid for the purpose.

These enterprises include shopping malls, dormitories, moviehouses, cockpits, boxing arenas, firing ranges, hospitals, laboratories, junkshops, gasoline stations, LPG refilling stations, schools, manufacturing plants, chemical warehouses, hotels, beerhouses, nightclubs, bars and similar establishments.

Beginning next year, building and occupancy permits to be applied with the Quezon City Engineering Department will also be released one week after the application without any need for follow-up. The new procedure is contained in an executive order of the mayor, who met and directed officials and personnel of the Engineering Department last month to devise a system of shortening the processing of building and occupancy permits.

Belmonte directed the concerned department to shorten the processing for the issuance of said permits from the present several weeks to the proposed working days without any need for follow-up on the part of the applicants.

Securing a permit with the city’s engineering department and building official has long been the subject of complaints from many taxpayers. But with the implementation of the new system, the department expects to get rid of red tape, fixers and unreasonably long period of time in the issuance of building and occupancy permits.