THE Quezon City government has blocked the supposed demolition of Our Lady of Fatima Parish church located at Cordillera Street in barangay Don Manuel to pave way for the construction of a new church, this time with a columbarium that could accommodate the safekeeping of urns with ashes of departed persons for a fee.
City Building Official Engr. ISagani Versoza Jr., warned the proponents of the church demolition that they might face sanction for violation of PD 1096 particularly Section 3.
Under Section 3, no person, firm or corporation, including any agency or instrumentality of the government shall construct, alter, repair, convert, use, occupy, move, demolish, and add any building/structure or any portion thereof or cause the same to be done, without first obtaining a building permit thereof from the Building Official assigned in the place where the subject building/structure is located or to be done.
Versoza said that his department, on orders of Mayor Herbert Bautista, has been strictly implementing PD1096 or the National Building Code in all projects in the city to prevent untoward incidents that might happen that in turn could be blamed on the city government and its officials.
“We are very strict in the enforcement of the National Building Code because we do not want to be blamed if there are untoward incidents,” Versoza said.
He added that the cease and desist order addressed to Rev. Fr. Arthur Opiniano of Our Lady of Fatima Parish is aimed to prevent any inappropriate action be demolition proponents without securing necessary permits in accordance with the law.
At the same time, Manila Times learned that the church parishioners vehemently oppose the demolition.
