The officialdom of Sto. Niño Barangay presented to the city council their proposal to redevelop the Sto. Niño Slaughter Compound located along Magsaysay Avenue, Balajadia Street, District 7.
Punong Barangay Camilo Tacbas highlighted that one of their proposed projects is the housing cooperative for the residents.
Other redevelopments proposed by the barangay include the terminal road network, water distribution system, storm drainage stystem, electrical distribution system, sewer distribution system and STP, city resettlement for informal settler families, among others.
In his letter to the city council, Tacbas said the aim is to decongest the area and make it more livable by providing resettlement facilities while improving existing distribution systems of water, power, and other utilities as well as upgrading facilities for the proper management of waste sewage.
Attached with the letter was a copy of a 130-page feasibility study made by Benguet Builders, a construction company, for the proposed projects.
Tacbas said the barangay would not oppose whatever plans the city government has for the land, however, he expressed hope that the residents will be allotted a certain portion of land in the said area.
“We are not insisting this feasibility study. But our primary concern is the welfare of our residents, some of whom have been there since 1968,” Tacbas said.
The punong barangay said they need a development permit for their cooperative’s housing development project.
The city council and the City Legal Office, however, clarified during the regular session, that the city government has no power to designate the area for whatever purpose as it is covered by a presidential proclamation (Proclamation No. 312) which reserves the area as a sanitary camp and a livestock yard. Moreover, the same proclamation assigns the city government as a mere administrator and not as an owner of the land.
“The City is an administrator of the property; hence it cannot do acts of ownership over that property as the role of the city is merely a caretaker,” Atty. Isagani Liporada said.
Liporada, Representative of the City Legal Office, said a new national law is needed to repeal the assigned function of the said portion of land under Proclamation No. 312 and redesignate it for other purposes.
The city council advised Tacbas to seek the help of Congressman Marquez Go for the passage of a bill that will address the matter.
It can be remembered that the city council passed a city resolution in 2019 requesting President Rodrigo Duterte to delineate the said parcel of land under Proclamation No. 312 to transfer the ownership of the same to the city government of Baguio.
Councilor Philian Weygan-Allan said the city government may allot a portion of the said land for the proposed housing project of the barangay if and when the council’s request to the Malacañang is granted.
Arch. Donna Tabangin, City Planning and Development Coordinator, supported Councilor Isabelo Cosalan’s request for the formulation of a cohesive master plan that will map out all the components of the developments to be undertaken in the said area.
Tabangin and Cosalan deemed the master plan as the key to the optimization of the said land.
“We need a master redevelopment plan so that we will not cause any fragmentation of that property as we undertake the redevelopment,” Tabangin said.
Meanwhile, Council Betty Lourdes Tabanda advised Tacbas not to recruit yet members of the housing cooperative as there are still no concrete plans for the redevelopments to be undertaken in the said area. **Jordan G. Habbiling
