BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Evelio Leonardia said he has requested the city's business sector to take down the "business will die" streamers because it can put Bacolod City in a bad light.

"There are people who maliciously link it to the tax code. That's never the intention," the mayor said in a television interview.

However, he pointed out that such "statement can also illicit negative effects."

Streamers that read, "By February 14, 2013, business in Bacolod will die, Mr. President, please help us," were displayed by various business groups along major roads in the city when President Benigno Aquino III visited the province last Saturday.

They were appealing to the President to exempt existing structures from the provision in the Comprehensive Fire Code of the Philippines that requires the installation of automatic fire suppression system (AFSS) or sprinkler system in buildings.

Architect Ramiro Garcia, chairman of the Bacolod ad hoc committee on the Fire Code of the Philippines, pointed out that since setting up a sprinkler system entails millions of pesos and requires an establishment to temporarily stop operations, this could lead a number of businesses to close shop.

Garcia said in a television interview that the streamers are already being taken down because they have already expressed their sentiments.

Twelve (not 13 as earlier reported) establishments in Bacolod City are complying with the requirement to install sprinkler system, records of the Bureau of Fire Protection show.

Chief Insp. Pamela Rojane Candido, city fire marshal, had earlier said 42 establishments in Bacolod signed last year the petition seeking a two-year extension to install a sprinkler system. The moratorium will lapse on Feb. 14, 2013.*NLG