MORE NEWS, BAGUIO CITY

‘Private vehicles’ for mayor, councilors nixed: Voters file amendment to Baguio car plan ordinance

BY MIKE GUIMBATAN JR.

Baguio voters within a span of one day produced the needed signatures to amend an approved ordinance to purchase vehicles for city council members under a car plan scheme and in the guise of priority projects .

The draft amendment ordinance accompanied by 1351 signatories in compliance with the local government code was formally received by the city council Tuesday.
Over 1,600 signed but only Baguio residents were counted.

Signing was done mostly by church goers on Dec. 9 spearheaded by the BMW or the Baguio Muna-Watchdog which formed itself as a public policy watchdog composed of religious, academic and civic minded leaders including among others the Roman Catholic church, Anglican, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Baguio Association of Ministers.

“This is just a dry run to manifest how people react to socio-political policies contrary to the common good and also to help leaders reminded of their primary responsibilities to the people,” said BMW spokesperson Rev. Simplicio Dang-awan.

The car plan issue emanated from a normal ordinance passed number 57 last November 12 allocating P25.2 million savings from 2006 Internal Revenue Allotment to finance priority projects.
Media was however tipped by city hall employees that the specific allocation revealed a P19.6 million car plan for the mayor and one each for the 14 councilors and the vice mayor.
The remaining P5.6 million will be shared as development project for the 128 barangays.

People reacted negatively to the disclosed car plan. An anti-car plan signature movement was launched initiated by graduate school students of the University of the Cordilleras.
This could have prompted Mayor Reinaldo Bautista to veto the Ordinance.

Despite mounting opposition, the city council passed Ordinance 57 on Dec. 3 overriding the veto of the city mayor.

The councilors claimed they will not pursue the car plan but their override was just a manifestation of their unity that the car plan idea was earlier agreed with the mayor’s consent.

Vice mayor Daniel Farinas said the council held the implementation of the car plan ordinance.
BMW legal counsels Reynaldo Agranzamendez and Ceasar Oracion were not convinced. Both explained that the ordinance and the override are expression of personal interests at the expense of the people.

Agranzamendez is the dean of law at the University of the Cordilleras while Oracion is also dean of laws of Saint Louis University.

Leaders of the public policy watchdogs were earlier informed of an impending repeal of the car plan ordinance initiated by councilors Galo Weygan and Perlita Chan-Rondez but the BMW still proceeded with the petition to give a message to the councilors and other elective officials that the BMW will be watching them.

The BMW recommended amendment itemized that P15 million will be used to purchase of dump trucks, establishment of barangay materials-recovery-facilities, and other equipment for garbage collection and disposal consistent with the solid waste management plan of the city.

P1.6 million will be used for the purchase of police mobile cars and motorcycles and street lights based on recommendation of the peace and order council and the remaining P8.6 million will be used to finance unimplemented barangay projects identified in barangay development plans.

“It is not enough that the fund will be re-allocated. The basis of prioritization should follow duly established system in planning and implementation and not at the whims of the legislators. Beside, each legislator is already allocated P2 million each annually as their pork barrel”, Marivic Madayag, BMW secretary said.



Street lighting maintenance to be transferred to Beneco
BY RAMON DACAWI

Repair and maintenance of the city’s street lights may soon be addressed in a jiffy and on a 24-hour basis as city hall is keen on accepting offer of the Benguet Electric Coop. to assume the responsibility.

“With this transfer, the barangays no longer need to bring to us their problems regarding replacement of busted bulbs on their streets and alleys,” mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said in his weekly media forum last Thursday morning.

Lack of city personnel and equipment for the job has delayed installation, repair and maintenance of some street and alley lights that are essential deterrents to crime. Beneco, on the other hand has its maintenance crews on call on a 24-hour basis.

Bautista said that Beneco would increase the burning hours of the un-metered street lights from 10 to 12 should the city allow the cooperative to manage the lighting system.

Brenda Carling, Beneco’s consumer services department manager, said that while the city would be billed for the additional two burning hours, it would save on manpower, material and maintenance costs.

Beneco will assume maintenance, replacement , repair and installation of the street lights,” Carling said.

She said the city has 5,802 un-metered streetlights and 1,252 metered ones but the figures will be verified during an inventory scheduled next month.

She and Beneco board president Joel Alangsab Thursday submitted to the mayor a draft of the memorandum of agreement covering the proposal designed to put to rest the complaint of barangays on the slow replacement of busted bulbs and repair of non-functioning lampposts.

The mayor also noted that streets will eventually be cleared of unsightly telephone and cable television wires attached by communications companies to old wooden poles which Beneco is replacing with concrete poles.

A joint committee representative of companies using the old poles is expected to complete the elimination of dangling wires within the central business by February, the mayor said.

City administrator Peter Fianza initiated the project in March last year through a meeting with representatives of PLDT, PILTEL, Smart, Skycable, VPGM-NCO Digital Telecommunications, Mozcom, Mountainview, Philippine Telegraphic and Telephone and other communications companies.

Only recently, the committee conducted a walk-through to ground the schedule of putting order on the spaghetti-like wires that are commonly mistaken for electric wires.

Engineer Ricardo Pallogan, manager of the operations and maintenance department of BENECO also recently came up with a detailed list of 38 wood poles set for removal from Nov. 12 to Dec. 14. These were located along Marcos Highway, Military Cut-off, Kennon Rd., Kisad and Legarda roads.

“Please facilitate the immediate removal of your cable attachments from the said old poles and transfer the same to the new electric poles so as not to impede our clearing operations come the schedule of pole retirement,” he wrote the communications companies.