Change Baguio charter — ORNUS 05-09-04

	NORDIS WEEKLY September 4, 2005
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Change Baguio charter — ORNUS
*Urban poor demand TSA scrapped* BAGUIO CITY (Sept. 1) — On this city’s 96th charter day anniversary, a section of its urban population trooped to the streets carrying placards and shouted slogans asking for a change in the city’s charter. In a short rally at the Kilometer 0 here, Geraldine Cacho, chairperson emeritus of the Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili iti Syudad (ORNUS) said Sept. 1 marks the imperialist encroachment into the Cordillera people’s territory. It is the Americans, she said, who drafted the Baguio Charter and sold Ibaloy lands to foreigners and the moneyed families from the metropolitan cities. Under the Baguio Charter, public lands that are alienable and disposable may be expropriated by virtue of a system the Americans introduced called the Townsite Sales Application (TSA). According to ORNUS, the TSA is anti-poor because it allows the sale of lands to the highest bidder. “Kasano a makatagikua ti dagdaga dagiti nakurapay nga umili iti syudad?” (How could the poor acquire lands in the city) the urban poor spokesperson wonders, “No ti mismo a linteg ti mangkuna a saan a mabalin?” (When the law says they could not). According to ORNUS, in 1985 of the 49 square-kilometer total land area of Baguio only 14% is residential. In the Charter Day program, Mayor Braulio Yaranon said that the city was intended for only 25,000 people. Almost 100 years later, Baguio City’s population is estimated at 300,000 or more than ten times as envisioned by the colonialists. During a Land Congress of ORNUS launched on August 31, representatives of the city’s urban poor resolved to recommend the amendment of the Baguio City Charter. They wanted the lands in urban poor settlements to be awarded to its actual occupants. Specifically, they wanted the TSA system scrapped and demolition of urban poor dwellings stopped. The land congress discussed in detail the situation of land ownership in the districts occupied by informal settlers from the provinces. These include three of the most populated districts, namely Irisan’s Cypress Point, Lime Kiln, San Carlos and Idugan; District 12’s Kias, Atok Trail, Fort del Pilar, Loakan, Liwanag and Apugan; and Fairview and Tacay areas. The city’s efforts at urban land use and housing, the status of ancestral land claims and the Baguio City Charter were also discussed in the said land congress. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS
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	NORDIS WEEKLY September 4, 2005
Home \| To bottom	Previous \| Next
Change Baguio charter — ORNUS
*Urban poor demand TSA scrapped* BAGUIO CITY (Sept. 1) — On this city’s 96th charter day anniversary, a section of its urban population trooped to the streets carrying placards and shouted slogans asking for a change in the city’s charter. In a short rally at the Kilometer 0 here, Geraldine Cacho, chairperson emeritus of the Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili iti Syudad (ORNUS) said Sept. 1 marks the imperialist encroachment into the Cordillera people’s territory. It is the Americans, she said, who drafted the Baguio Charter and sold Ibaloy lands to foreigners and the moneyed families from the metropolitan cities. Under the Baguio Charter, public lands that are alienable and disposable may be expropriated by virtue of a system the Americans introduced called the Townsite Sales Application (TSA). According to ORNUS, the TSA is anti-poor because it allows the sale of lands to the highest bidder. “Kasano a makatagikua ti dagdaga dagiti nakurapay nga umili iti syudad?” (How could the poor acquire lands in the city) the urban poor spokesperson wonders, “No ti mismo a linteg ti mangkuna a saan a mabalin?” (When the law says they could not). According to ORNUS, in 1985 of the 49 square-kilometer total land area of Baguio only 14% is residential. In the Charter Day program, Mayor Braulio Yaranon said that the city was intended for only 25,000 people. Almost 100 years later, Baguio City’s population is estimated at 300,000 or more than ten times as envisioned by the colonialists. During a Land Congress of ORNUS launched on August 31, representatives of the city’s urban poor resolved to recommend the amendment of the Baguio City Charter. They wanted the lands in urban poor settlements to be awarded to its actual occupants. Specifically, they wanted the TSA system scrapped and demolition of urban poor dwellings stopped. The land congress discussed in detail the situation of land ownership in the districts occupied by informal settlers from the provinces. These include three of the most populated districts, namely Irisan’s Cypress Point, Lime Kiln, San Carlos and Idugan; District 12’s Kias, Atok Trail, Fort del Pilar, Loakan, Liwanag and Apugan; and Fairview and Tacay areas. The city’s efforts at urban land use and housing, the status of ancestral land claims and the Baguio City Charter were also discussed in the said land congress. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS
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