BAGUIOCITY, PHILIPPINES – The City Council unanimously approved a resolution requesting lessors in the city to waive therentals of their lessees who either stopped or suspended their commercialoperations during the implementation of the Luzon-wide enhanced communityquarantine upon orders of President Rodrigo R. Duterte from March 17 to April13, 2020.
The city legislative body convened aspecial session to pass important resolutions to alleviate the lives of peopledirectly affected by the implementation of the enhanced community quarantineduring the prescribed period.
The city legislators argued lessors shouldunderstand the current predicament of their lessees, especially commercialestablishments that are leasing spaces in their buildings, in paying theirrentals due to the temporary suspension of their operations or the eventualstoppage of their operations as a result of the implementation of theLuzon-wide enhanced community quarantine due to the continuous increase in theCorona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 cases.
The City Council pointed out thatlessors should give their lessees that stopped or suspended their operationsduring this period of enhanced community quarantine the necessary suspension oftheir rentals to allow them to recover from the serious negative effect of the current state of the economy that has been ravaged by the COVID outbreak in thecountry.
According to the resolution,everyone has been significantly affected by the current state of calamity inthe country and it is also important for owners of commercial spaces to sharethe burden of their lessees in this time that businesses are unduly affectedfrom the strict implementation of the enhanced community quarantine.
Earlier, numerous occupants ofcommercial spaces in various commercial buildings around the city had beeninquiring from city officials what assistance could be extended by the city tospare them from the imposition of unnecessary surcharges and penalties by theirlessors once they will not be able to pay their lease rentals on time as theywere not able to operate due to the advice of authorities for people to stay athome.
The approved resolution is part ofthe initiatives of the city government to send a collective appeal to theprivate sector to understand the current state of the country in the light ofthe continuous increase in COVID cases coupled with the confirmed communitytransmission of the deadly virus which warrants the implementation of strictconfinement measures to prevent the further spread of the illness.
Part of the conditions imposed bythe Memorandum from the Office of the Executive Secretary on the implementationof the enhanced community quarantine is the possible implementation of reprievefrom the payment of rentals by lessees considering the virtual stoppage oftheir operations as an offshoot of the Luzon-wide quarantine that mandated allresidents to possibly stay at home when they have nothing to do outside theirhomes as part of the precautionary measures to be practiced to prevent thespread of the deadly virus.
