The Office of Building Official of Bacolod City released a first notice of violation to DITO Telecommunity Corp. for allegedly constructing a cell site in Purok Himaya, Barangay Alijis in violation of the National Building Code.
In a notice issued on Feb. 16, 2021, Engineer Nestor Velez, acting department head of the Office of Building Official, said DITO, the third major telecom player in the country, received the notice for alleged violation of Section 301 of the Presidential Decree 1096, or the National Building Code of the Philippines.
Section 301 of the National Building Code states that, “No person, firm or corporation, including any agency or instrumentality of the government shall erect, construct, alter, repair, move, convert or demolish any building or structure or cause the same to be done without first obtaining a building permit therefor from the building official assigned in the place where the subject building is located or the building work is to be done.”
Officials or representatives of DITO were given three days to coordinate with the said office and were ordeded to stop construction of the cell site in the area.
Residents of Purok Himaya earlier resisted DITO’s the constuction of a cell site in their area.
In a letter submitted to the City Council of Bacolod and addressed to Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and Councilor Archie Baribar, chairman of the SP Committee on Communications, the residents appealed that the cell site construction be stopped.
The complainants said residents of neighboring Purok Paghigugma were opposing the cell site construction.
The residents expressed surprise why the cell site construction pushed through despite a resolution signed by 61 residents which was passed by the purok council in July 2020..
In the resolution, the officials said they wanted to protect the community against the effects of over-saturation of electromagnetic and wireless radiation exposure on the ecosystem.
“The cellular companies list the benefits of improved coverage, faster data, and better services as a result installing this technology but they avoid any focus on health and safety issues that is our primary concern,” they said.
In December 2020, the local government of Malabon City also filed a case against DITO for the alleged illegal construction of a cell site in Barangay Tinajeros.