THE Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship is poised to frontload consideration of remedial legislation to protect consumers and motorists from exorbitant parking fees by mall owners, hospitals, schools and other establishments.
Once passed into law, Senate Bill 745, to be known as Parking Fees Regulation Act, will set standard parking rates in various establishments for all motor vehicles and provide parking fee regulations, as well as penalties for violators.
In filing the bill, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the proposed law was crafted as “a consumer-friendly measure, especially for the emerging middle class, since it can potentially make parking vehicles in shopping malls and similar establishments, notwithstanding the location, fair, and affordable to them.”
The senator was prompted to push passage of the remedial measure after noting that “consumers, especially those in Metro Manila and urban areas, have no choice but to pay the excessive parking fees imposed by commercial complexes even if the latter have already profited from the purchase of goods and services by the former.”
Gatchalian griped that “these unfair, anti-consumer policies have gone for long enough,” asserting that “it is time for Congress to employ its plenary power to regulate a problem that is simple, yet vital to millions of Filipinos in the emerging middle class.’
As provided in Senate Bill 745, imposition of fees for the use of parking spaces and facilities in shopping malls, hospitals, schools or other similar establishments, including vacant lots and buildings that are solely devoted for parking slot use, “will be regulated to keep prices within reasonable bounds.”
The Gatchalian bill proposes a standard parking fee of only P40 per vehicle for up to eight hours and additional P10 for every succeeding hour. For overnight parking, a customer shall be charged a one-time fee of P100 per vehicle. The measure also waives the parking fee of customers who have purchased at least P1,000 worth of goods or services, provided that they have used the parking space for not more than three hours.
In addition, the bill provides that establishment owners will be held accountable “in case of loss of property or damage to the customer’s motor vehicle” while inside their parking spaces by prohibiting them from invoking a waiver of liability.
“Business establishments shall maintain and provide security in the parking spaces of their establishments. When parking fees are collected by business establishments from their customers for the use of parking spaces, these establishments shall be responsible for the safety of patrons and shall be prohibited from invoking the waiver of liability in case of loss of property or damage to the customer’s motor vehicle,” Gatchalian said.
The senator stressed that “the key here is to strike an equitable middle ground that will afford consumers the necessary protections without excessively hampering the ability of legitimate parking enterprises from conducting fair and profitable business.”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes