NGO Head Stops Seminar

Days after the Cebu City Council advised the Paglaum Basureros 20/20 Inc. to stop collecting fees from business permit applicants who attends their seminar, the group’s managing director Francis Paragas announced he will stop conducting seminars.

The group headed by Paragas had collected P750 fees from those who attended their recent seminars about the crafting of an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan (Esap) in line with City Ordinance 2243 or the Sustainable Development Ordinance of Cebu City.

City Councilor Nida Cabrera earlier raised the issue about possible conflict of interest for Paragas to engage in seminars about the implementation of the ordinance and his private group would receive the P750 fee.

Aside from heading the Paglaum Basureros 20/20 Inc., Paragas also serves as a member of the Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board and receives P1,000 as honorarium for every board meeting.

Under the ordinance all business establishments are required to submit an Esap to the city when applying for a new or for the renewal of their business or mayor’s permit.

Although according to Paragas his group was just trying to help the city by conducting the seminar to help make sure that the business establishments will no longer have problems in getting permits every January, but some persons look at it in other way.

He said to address any perceived conflict of interest Paragas has decided to temporarily stop conducting seminars about Esap and just advised the businessmen to check the guidelines on how to comply the requirement by coordinating with the City Environment and Natural Resource Office.

Paragas maintained that the collection of the seminar fee at P750 from each of the participants will be used to pay the venue of the seminar, food, honorarium of the speakers and for the production of the training materials.

The collection of P750 fee from each of the applicants of business permits has been approved by Mayor Michael Rama even before the issuance of business permit to the private group headed by Paragas.