BAGUIO City Councilor Benny Bomogao has proposed an ordinance that would institutionalize and set guidelines for the practice of subleasing of Baguio City public market stalls.
Under the proposed amendment to Sections 160 and 161 of Tax Ordinance Numbered 2000-001, subleasing, or the leasing of a market stall to another lessor by the original lessor of the stall, would be acknowledged as a legally valid practice and be regulated under official guidelines.
Bomogao, in his proposal, claims that the practice is “not in any way illegal, and it can be permitted subject to some regulations that should fairly benefit the city.”
The proposal, approved on first reading, sets certain conditions to follow in the process of subleasing that lessors with the Baguio City Market Authority (BCMA) must comply with before they will be allowed to sublease the stalls they operate.
Only lessors who have leased their stall or booth continuously for at least five years will be allowed to legally sublease their areas under the supervision of the market superintendent. Also, the sublessor must be a resident or registered voter of Baguio City and must not be otherwise registered as a lessor or sublessor of any other stall in the market, or an operator of any concessionaire, stall, booth or any similar business in the city.
In addition to the rent for the lease itself, charged to the original lessor, the lessor must also pay thirty percent of the overhead rental for the sublease contract, which can only be terminated in coordination with the BCMA.
The sublessee is also forbidden from then subleasing the stall itself to another lessor.
