BAGUIO City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) data is showing that the vast majority of structures within the city’s territory are lacking building permits, according to CBAO official Engineer Stephen Capuyan.
Capuyan said that the latest CBAO data show some 80 percent of structures in the city, or some 96,000 out of roughly 120,000 structures have no valid permits, leaving only 20 percent or around 24,000 structures with proper paperwork.
This is a sharp increase compared to initial figures of the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), who early last year showed that only 25 percent of the city’s structures had no building permits.
According to Capuyan, many landowners went ahead and built structures on their land without first securing permits from the city.
He added that many individuals in the city struggle due to the “exorbitant” fees charged by sly “technical people” who offer their services in preparing the plans and designs of their buildings and the encroachments on other properties and road rights-of-way.
As the processing of building permits is done by these technical people, including engineers and architects, the CBAO’s hands are tied and can only offer limited assistance, according to Capuyan.
However, he also called on structure owners to seek assistance with the CBAO in order to acquire the necessary permits, as the city would be forced to resort to demolition in the worst case scenario.
