THE Manila city government yesterday shut down the Isetann Cinerama Recto shopping mall for alleged multiple violations.
In a memorandum dated Oct. 9, Bureau of Permits officer-in-charge Levi Facundo said Tri-Union Properties, Inc., which runs the mall, leased out commercial space and stalls without securing the business permit required by Section 118 of City Ordinance No. 8331.
Likewise, Trans-Orient Management Services, Inc. allegedly operated as a property management service provider without the necessary business permit.
The memorandum also said Cineworld Cinerama, Inc. only secured a business permit for one of the four cinemas it operated in the mall.
Tri-Union also allegedly misrepresented its actual business area and the number of its employees.
“Pursuant to the terms and conditions laid out in the business permit, Isetann Cinerama Complex shall be closed based on the following: (1) Business operation violates any of the existing city ordinances… (2) Misrepresentation in the application for the permit,” read the memorandum.
Tri-Union’s business permit as a shopping center was supposed to be valid until Dec. 31, 2019.
Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso went to the mall to personally serve the closure order on the same day it was issued by Facundo.
The mall earlier incurred Domagoso’s ire for the sale of second-hand cellphones and alleged illegal gambling operations in its premises.
The precursor of Isetann, Cinerama Recto, began operating as a movie theater in 1964. — Vince Nonato
