After 2 decades, measures imposing car park regulations start moving
Published Jan 10, 2020 12:00 am
By Ben Rosario
Two decades after the first bill seeking to regulate car park operations was filed, Congress appeared bent at pursuing at least 14 legislative measures on the same subject, especially now that a lawmaker was herself victimized by private parking regulations deemed highly disadvantageous to vehicle owners.
House of the Representatives (Manila Bulletin File Photo)
No less than the chairman of the House Committee on Trade endorsed the passage of a legislative measures seeking to protect consumers against security threats in parking spaces and proposing regulation of parking fees imposed by malls, hospitals schools, business establishments and even government agencies.
Committee chairman and Valenzuela Rep. Wes Gatchalian has moved to fasttrack the consolidation of the bills as he presided over a hearing that tackled a congressional investigation into car park operations in the country.
ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Nina Taduran lauded Gatchalian’s move even as she admitted having fallen prey to thieves who ransacked her car that was supposedly securely parked inside a popular shopping mall’s car park area last week.
“How many cases of these ‘basag-kotse’ incidents have been solved? Why are the suspects brazen enough to smash car windows without any security personnel noticing this?” Taduran asked.
There have been numerous bills filed in Congress the past 20 years but not one has passed third reading in either the Senate and the Lower House.
The late Senator Rene Cayetano and former Rep. Tessie Aquino Oreta, who later became a senator, were the first legislators to file car park regulation measures. The Lower House is currently headed by Cayetano’s son, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Months before Taduran lost some P200,000 in valuables to the “basag kotse” gang, 1PACMAN Party-list Reps. Michael Odylon L. Romero and Enrico Pineda filed House Resolution No. 157 calling the attention of Congress on several complaints from motorists who have been victimized by robbers and carnappers despite payment of “exorbitant parking fees” imposed by various business establishments.
“There have been several reports of carnapping, robbery and simple mischief committed against parked vehicles where establishment owners and parking management entities refuse to take liability from,” said Romero and Pineda.
The two party-list solons stressed that the State has the “inherent duty” to protect consumers from unnecessary, unreasonable and unjustified exactions, thus, a probe into car park operations was proposed.
Common among the bills filed is the provision making it a duty of car park operators to secure vehicles and provide protection to all clients.
The legislative proposals also call for regulation of imposed fees.
Compostela Valley Rep. Manuel Zamora noted that even government agencies and hospitals have followed commercial establishments in imposing unreasonable car park fees.
The National Kidney Transplant Institute, for instance, imposes the same rates as shopping malls for an unpaved and pot-holed parking area that is not enclosed for security purposes.
Reps. Manuel Luis Lopez (NP, Manila) and Eric Olivarez (PDP-Laban, Paranaque City) batted for free carpark privileges to senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
House of the Representatives (Manila Bulletin File Photo)
No less than the chairman of the House Committee on Trade endorsed the passage of a legislative measures seeking to protect consumers against security threats in parking spaces and proposing regulation of parking fees imposed by malls, hospitals schools, business establishments and even government agencies.
Committee chairman and Valenzuela Rep. Wes Gatchalian has moved to fasttrack the consolidation of the bills as he presided over a hearing that tackled a congressional investigation into car park operations in the country.
ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Nina Taduran lauded Gatchalian’s move even as she admitted having fallen prey to thieves who ransacked her car that was supposedly securely parked inside a popular shopping mall’s car park area last week.
“How many cases of these ‘basag-kotse’ incidents have been solved? Why are the suspects brazen enough to smash car windows without any security personnel noticing this?” Taduran asked.
There have been numerous bills filed in Congress the past 20 years but not one has passed third reading in either the Senate and the Lower House.
The late Senator Rene Cayetano and former Rep. Tessie Aquino Oreta, who later became a senator, were the first legislators to file car park regulation measures. The Lower House is currently headed by Cayetano’s son, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Months before Taduran lost some P200,000 in valuables to the “basag kotse” gang, 1PACMAN Party-list Reps. Michael Odylon L. Romero and Enrico Pineda filed House Resolution No. 157 calling the attention of Congress on several complaints from motorists who have been victimized by robbers and carnappers despite payment of “exorbitant parking fees” imposed by various business establishments.
“There have been several reports of carnapping, robbery and simple mischief committed against parked vehicles where establishment owners and parking management entities refuse to take liability from,” said Romero and Pineda.
The two party-list solons stressed that the State has the “inherent duty” to protect consumers from unnecessary, unreasonable and unjustified exactions, thus, a probe into car park operations was proposed.
Common among the bills filed is the provision making it a duty of car park operators to secure vehicles and provide protection to all clients.
The legislative proposals also call for regulation of imposed fees.
Compostela Valley Rep. Manuel Zamora noted that even government agencies and hospitals have followed commercial establishments in imposing unreasonable car park fees.
The National Kidney Transplant Institute, for instance, imposes the same rates as shopping malls for an unpaved and pot-holed parking area that is not enclosed for security purposes.
Reps. Manuel Luis Lopez (NP, Manila) and Eric Olivarez (PDP-Laban, Paranaque City) batted for free carpark privileges to senior citizens and persons with disabilities.