By Ben R. Rosario Believing that Congress can withstand a lobby by carpark operators, several congressmen revived the bid to regulate the imposition of parking fees in shopping malls, hospitals, parks and other business establishments. Manila Rep. John Marvin Nieto, also known as Yul Servo, joined several colleagues in filing a bill that aside from stopping vehicle parking operators from levying unjustified fees, will stop them from imposing unfair conditions that free them from the responsibility of securing vehicles and persons entering their establishments. Aside from Servo, Reps. Alfred Vargas (PDP-Laban, Quezon City); Ace Barbers (PDP-Laban, Surigao del Norte); Wes Gatchalian (NPC, Valenzuela City) and Rodante  Marcoleta (Partylist) have earlier filed their own version of the bill. Similar measures have been filed since the 11th Congress, or over 18 years ago, in both the Lower House and the Senate but with no success. It has been noted that in many instances, parking regulation bills were usually ignored by committees assigned to act on them.  Authors also lose interest in pursuing their legislative proposals. Supsicions of intervention by well-financed lobby groups have been blamed by consumers’ organizations supporting the measure. “Given the current rise of the number of vehicles in the country, especially in Metro Manila, it is high time for the government to take appropriate actions in managing the different facets brought about by the phenomenon,” said Servo, a movie actor popularly known as Yul Servo. Servo filed House Bill (HB) 7395 that seeks to limit car park fees to R40 for a maximum of eight hours and additional R10 for every hour in excess of the limit. HB 7395 also bars car park operators from evading responsibility in securing paying patrons and their vehicles. Earlier, Vargas, a multi-awarded actor, filed HB 7341 which contains provisions nearly similar to those of Nieto’s. Citing statistics indicating that there are an estimated seven million vehicles in Metro Manila, Vargas said this huge number of vehicles has triggered “parking fee tyranny” where mall owners impose exorbitant and unregulated fees “from desperate consumers who have no choice but to pay.” The QC lawmaker said shopping malls that also operate car parks should no longer impose fees if the vehicle owners purchase goods or patronize recreational centers inside the malls. In filing HB 5041 or the proposed Parking Fees Regulation Act, Barbers assailed the collection of “overprice and unreasonable parking fees by malls, parking lots, hospitals and others as prejudicial and anti-consumer.”