Moratorium on malls, buildings rentals pushed

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – The Sangguniang Panlungsod here approved a resolution requesting malls and buildings owners to impose a moratorium on rentals of small and medium business tenants who are temporarily closed or under limited operation due to the imposition of the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) here.

Councilor Simple Distrito authored the resolution which was unanimously approved by the SP in its regular session Wednesday.

Distrito said she is requesting that the moratorium be extended until the end of the year.

The resolution said that on Sept 7, 2020 the national Inter-Agency Task Force against the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 issued Resolution no.69-A that placed the city of Bacolod under MECQ from Sept 8-30 due to increasing cases.

The resolution also said that the implementation of the MECQ required the use of the Home Quarantine Pass, suspended public transportation and prohibited the operation of most businesses in the city.

Distrito said the closure of businesses due to the recent quarantine protocol “severely affected the income of our small and medium businesses who are mostly tenants of buildings and malls.”

She further said that the Sanggunian has previously passed a resolution asking all lessors in the city “to consider graciously the situation of our businesses particularly the Micro, Small, Medium businesses to address the impact of the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine, this time it is also fitting to reiterate such request given that the city under MECQ and that most of these businesses were not yet able to recover from the impact when ECQ was implemented.”

“Given the situation, it is best to set the moratorium until the end of the year to consider the plight of our businesses and to give them time to recover their losses,” Distrito said.