Baguio dads invite GSIS, SM, DENR execs on Baguio Convention Center lot

2 MIN READ

BAGUIO CITY (May 16) — The city council has invited to its regular session tomorrow (Monday) personalities from key institutions involved in the alleged plan to construct a commercial structure at the remaining forested lot within the Baguio Convention Center reservation.

Invited to shed light on the issue were representatives from the Government Service Insurance System, the Shoemart Investments Corporation, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Registry of Deeds.

Three proposals are now pending before the city council calling for the preservation of the pine forest as such and opposing any plan to develop the same into anything but a pine forest.

Councilor Richard Cariño filed a resolution “opposing any plan to cut trees or construct a building by SM properties or any other persons over the lot situated between the Baguio Convention Center and Court of Appeals building.”

Councilors Fred Bagbagen, Isabelo Cosalan Jr. and Elaine Sembrano’s joint proposed resolution also opposed the “removal of the pine forest at the BCC grounds to allow construction of a commercial structure by private developers.”

Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, meanwhile, wants to request the GSIS to submit a letter of intent for whatever development it may undertake in the area.

The aldermen said that removing the woodland would have great effect on the environment as apart from being one of the few remaining pine stands in the city, it supplies part of the water needs of the city.

Also being considered by the city council is the letter of former mayor Braulio Yaranon requesting “that the ongoing cutting of the existing pine forest at the BCC be stopped until very important issues of public interest and concern are fully threshed out, and to suspend any permit for tree cutting, development, excavation or building already issued on the area.”

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. in his media briefing assured that the city’s interest will be considered before any development will be allowed in the area.

He said the area should be preserved as such and that the proponents instead find other areas to develop.

The proponents said “the pine forest forms an integral part of the Camp 8 Forest and Watershed which feeds the water aquifers supplying the Camp 8 Pumping Station of the Baguio Water District which provides part of the water supply of the City of Baguio.”

The area “which stands within the Government Center Reservation was planted more than three decades ago under the direction of then First Lady Imelda Marcos who was also Minister of Human Settlements at the time, hence, it is a government forest.”

They said the Constitution mandates that “forests are inalienable natural resources of the State.”

The area is reportedly being eyed by the SM Investments Corporation for development into yet another commercial hub. # Aileen P. Refuerzo/PIO