Batangas mayor sued over alleged refusal to grant building permit

The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) has sued Mayor Lester De Sagun of San Nicolas, Batangas for violation of Local Government Code and Ease of Doing Business Act over the Mayor’s alleged refusal to grant a building permit to a businesswoman despite the latter submitting complete requirements.

In a complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday, ARTA said that De Sagun "capriciously" denied Gertrudes Gahol's request last August by telling engineer Diosdado La Rosa of the Municipal Local Government Operations Office of the Department of Interior and Local Government that “wala akong balak bigyan sila ng permit.”

Gahol was seeking a building permit since the electricity transformer in their building malfunctioned and there was a need to build another one at the soonest possible time.

On September 5, La Rosa also said that his fellow engineer, Gemma Matienzo, told him that De Sagun would not release the documents requested by Gahol “whatever the consequences may be.”

In addition, the Mayor said in a September 11, 2019 correspondence from his office that his office “has no authority to approve the replacement/upgrading of transformer pursuant to the request of Gahol.”

“Granting for the sake of argument that Mayor De Sagun’s office does not have authority to approve said request, the most questionable fact is that, why would engineers Matienzo and Laroza said that the processing of permits will go through Mayor de Sagun, and that he will never approve the application of Mrs. Gahol “whatever the consequences might be “coupled by the fact that the subject permit is still not decided,” ARTA said in its complaint.

Given the situation, ARTA said De Sagun failed to render government service within the prescribed processing time, considering that Gahol submitted their request as early as July 2019.

Under the Ease of Doing Business Act, applications or requests should not exceed the 3 to 20-day working day rule.

“Kung hindi kayo tatalima sa ating batas, maging sino man kayo, hindi kami magdadalawang isip na parusahan kayo,” ARTA Director General Jeremiah Belgica added.

GMA News Online has reached out to De Sagun's camp for comment. — BM, GMA News