MORE NEWS, BAGUIO CITY

Hearing set on closure order: Kennon Road unsafe, DoTC official warns
By Dexter A See

BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Transportation and Communications is soliciting testimonies from tourists and residents in its bid to prove that Kennon Road, the shortest route to this mountain resort city from the lowlands and vice versa, is unsafe for the motoring public.

Lawyer Federico Mandapat Jr., Cordillera DoTC director, said it is unfortunate there are public officials and personnel of government agencies who refuse to see the reality that Kennon Road is dangerous to the motoring public, noting the danger posed by falling rocks especially during downpour.

While his order closing Kennon Road to inter-regional traffic has been relaxed pending the conduct of a hearing here, he said the DoTC should not be blamed in case something happens to motorists, especially those riding in public utility vans and buses, in the coming days.

Strong afternoon rains started to pour in the city and other parts of the Cordillera, posing serious threat to motorists passing through Kennon Road because of rock falls and landslides on the 34-kilometer road.

Professionals, and private citizens, among others, have already related their horrible experiences while passing through Kennon Road and have submitted their testimonies to the DoTC.

The DoTC official said there is no bias in his controversial order closing Kennon Road to inter-regional traffic because it was aimed at ensuring the safety of the riding public, but there are some individuals, particularly politicians, who are simply interested in protecting their own interests. This is the reason they are not supportive of his order.

The controversial Kennon Road closure order has generated varied opinions from different sectors as van operators claimed that passing through Marcos Highway results in additional fuel expense of R300 and a 20-minute delay in travel time.

Meanwhile, Benguet provincial officials said the Kennon Road closure order has deprived residents in communities alongside the road of the chance to avail themselves of a convenient way of transportation, and are now having a hard time commuting from their place to their points of destination either in the city or in the lowlands.

Mandapat said some Benguet provincial officials are more interested in protecting the business of the van operators rather than the safety of their constituents, adding that he will defend the closure order and will substantiate his arguments by presenting researches detailing the unstable, unsafe condition of Kennon Rad.

The DOTC central office will conduct a hearing in the city on May 19 to get the sentiments of the various sectors on whether or not Kennon Rad must be closed to inter-regional traffic.

Mandapat cited the testimonies of hundreds of motorists who had horrible experiences while passing through the road.

Firms refuse to insure market
BAGUIO CITY — Insurance companies, whether government or private, are not interested in insuring the dilapidated public market here because it is “high-risk.”
It is high risk since the marker was declared a fire and accident hazard.

The city government could not develop the 30-year-old market because a case filed by some vendors against the improvement plan has not yet been resolved.

The city is supposed to implement preventive measures to assure the safety of tourists and residents from fire and other disasters, but it lacks the political will to do so, a city leader said.

Most of the structures in the market are made of wood, and arson investigators feared the occurrence of a worst case scenario if a fire hits any building in the market.
Two weeks ago, at least 60 stall owners in the souvenir section of the market were displaced when a fire razed their stalls and resulted in property damage estimated at over P50 million.

Some groups of vendors in the market, especially those who have subleased their stalls, have questioned the privatization of the city’s public market.

While the city government has initially allotted P100 million for the partial development of the market tourists and residents alike are disappointed over the snail-paced action of city officials on the sub-leasing of stalls by enterprising leaseholders to the prejudice of the local government and its people.

City officials confirmed report on the lack of prospective insurers for the market structures, saying this would be to the great disadvantage in the event of fire.
Initially, there were attempts by unscrupulous individuals to burn the market so that the city government could build a better, safer structure, but firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to other structures.

The city is expected to rehabilitate the recently burned market structures on Magsaysay Ave. and the Rillera building even with the pending case in court.
This highly urbanized city was left out by some towns in Northern Luzon in the development of its market facility because it did not introduce any development to its old market building that would attract more tourists in the city.

Affected vendors in the burned area expressed fears that once the city improves the market, they would be displaced from their spaces and would eventually be awarded to other occupants.


Reward set for info on Jude Wal 11 slay
BAGUIO CITY – Friends and former classmates of slain St. Louis University student Jude Wal Jr. have put up a reward for any information that would lead to the arrest of those involved in his unsolved murder.

This was disclosed yesterday by the slain student’s father, Jude Sr., who said that the cash reward was put up through contributions by his son’s friends and classmates.

Their relatives from the Ilocos and Pangasinan are also expected to meet today to see what can be done to bring justice to his untimely death.

“I was surprised when they came to visit us with a huge box that I even had a hard time carrying due to the large amount of cash in different denominations inside,” he said.

“According to the friends who delivered this collection, this was contributed by them, and their other friends and classmates in SLU, out of their allowances, portions of their first salaries and pocket money to be able to help in the solution of my son’s murder,” Jude Sr. revealed.

He said that although he knows that the police are doing their best to arrest those involved in his son’s murder, this reward could prove to be pivotal in its earlier solution.

“Without the testimonies of any eyewitness and any other piece of evidence to pin down those involved, the case would be hard to solve. The police are now still facing a blank wall. What we need is someone who would call or approach the police, even without divulging his or her real name, to pinpoint those behind my son’s murder. This could help solve the case at the soonest possible time,” Jude Sr. said.

Until recently, he disclosed, he still received death threats on his cell phone and even noticed that he was still being followed by suspicious-looking men riding a motorcycle.

However, when he called the chief of the La Trinidad Municipal Police Station to set up a blockade in the latest instance, the motorcycle-riding men disappeared from sight.

Jude Sr. said their family appreciates what the SLU administration did during the posthumous graduation of his son last April 19.

He said that when the school conferred a BS Accountancy degree on his slain son, since this was done alphabetically and his son’s name was the last called, everybody present then gave a standing ovation.

Jude Sr. earlier said he knows who masterminded the murder of his eldest son and said that no other person has any motive to perpetrate it.

He added the mastermind in his son’s murder had “an axe to grind” against him and made sure that his son was the one murdered, instead of him, to maximize the grief of their whole family.

The SLU chapel overflowed with hundreds of mourners, after a requiem mass was held there for the first time, to bid goodbye to Jude II last Jan. 30.

Jude II, who just turned 21 years old five days before he was murdered, was cremated in Heaven’s Garden memorial park in Irisan afterward. He was supposed to have graduated two months later.

Anakbayan, the Kabataan partylist youth group and thousands of students in Baguio called for immediate justice for his death.