ENVIRONMENT WATCH

Pushing Forbes Park as forest reservation

BAGUIO CITY – The city council last Monday called for the retention of the Forbes Park area along South Drive here as a forest reservation following confirmation by the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources regional office here that some portions of the reservation has been declared as alienable.

The body also requested the regional DENR to cancel all townsite sales applications made by private entities over said lot and to immediately resolve the ancestral land issued in the area to retain the area as a pine stand and safeguard its forest cover.

Victor Carantes, officer-in-charge of the office of the regional technical director for lands of the DENR confirmed before the body that some portions of the 29-hectare Forbes Park I have been reclassified as alienable or disposable as per Proclamation No. 773 and Republic Act No. 8963. The body was deliberating on a proposal by Vice Mayor Daniel Farinas to turn over Forbes Park I to the city government for development into a regular campsite.

Carantes said the DENR-CAR would interpose no objection to the proposal but this would have to pass through the Office of the President and the Congress. He added there were areas approved for disposition but there were also TSA sales applications over Forbes Park lots that were disapproved by the DENR like the applications of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines and the ancestral claimants.

The council nevertheless was concerned that there were portions declared open for disposition thus it moved to declare it a policy of the city government to retain the areas as a forest reservation. The body also requested the DENR to provide the city with an updated map delineating and pinpointing areas that remain as forest reservation vis-à-vis the areas declared as alienable.

In 2005, then mayor Braulio Yaranon made the same move asking the DENR-CAR to cancel all the miscellaneous and townsite sales applications over lots within the Forbes Park and asked the recall of the fencing, building and such other permits issued to any person or entity applying for said lots located along South Drive from the Military Circle towards the Girl Scout area.

The mayor’s move was prompted by reports that TSA and MSA lot applications over said lots have been approved by the AO 504 committee with the applicants claiming that the lots are part of their ancestral domain. That same year, city officials opposed House Bill No. 3172 which seeks to exclude a portion of land at Parcel 2 of the Forbes Forest Reservation in Gibraltar here from the Baguio Townsite Reservation and from Proclamations No. 10 and 63 declaring the area as forest reservation and instead declare the subject area open for disposition to qualified applicants.

The late Mt. Province Rep. Victor Dominguez, who then authored by measure eventually withdrew the bill in deference to the city officials’ wishes. -- Aileen P. Refuerzo


Baguio ‘hikes the talk’: ‘July walk’ gains steam

“Walk, Baguio, Walk”, Baguio’s push to promote walking as an entry point in rallying its residents to actively support environmental thrusts for a more wholesome urban landscape, will be renewed with the next “Walk Day” set on July 14.

The medical sector, through the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center headed by director Manuel Factora, will take the lead this time, as announced during the launching program last June 2 at the city’s athletic oval. For July, the “Walk 2” multi-agency organizing committee led by BGH-MC, the City Government, Baguio Regreening Movement, the National Economic Development Authority, Department of Transportation and Communication, and the Cordillera Association of Regional Executives are likewise firming up consolidation of plans for the implementation of Fil-Am Friendship Day, the Cordillera Month; the Anniversary of the 1990 Earthquake; and Disaster Consciousness Month to ensure full participation of all government agencies in stationed in Baguio.

Since the kick-off that drew some 2,000 participants, officials at city hall have initiated measures to sustain the drive, topped by a decision by mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. against lifting the “number coding scheme” designed to ease traffic within the central business district.

The mayor has also ordered a “no parking policy” this month within the city’s university belt, thereby clearing roads leading to and from schools with the opening of the academic year. The mayor renewed his push for converting Session Rd., the city’s main street, into a walking promenade and ordered a study for a six-day-a-week ban on vehicles within the central business district instead of the one-day-per-week provided in the “number coding” ordinance. Vice-mayor Daniel Farinas has also proposed every Friday as car-less day so private vehicle owners would walk, take the cab or jeepney in going to and from their work.

The car-less day concept was successfully implemented about eight years ago in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, under the leadership of then mayor Enrique Penalosa. “A city is made for people, not for cars,” Penalosa said when he presented the Bogota Model during the World Urban Forum in Sweden in 2005. City administrator Peter Fianza, action officer of “Walk, Baguio, Walk” has proposed that vehicles of city employees covered by the number coding scheme should not be parked within the city hall premises to allow space for the public.

The next “Walk Day” will rally workers and officials to again walk to the city athletic bowl for a flag-ceremony and to their offices and to their residences. Those who can’t are encouraged to leave their cars at home and ride the taxi or the jeep, thereby helping reduce pollution and loosen up traffic congestion. Participants will again be asked to submit practical and do-able suggestions, including what they are doing and will undertake to improve the urban environment.

“Phase out old vehicles emitting smoke,” one participant wrote last June 2. Another called for a more aggressive crackdown on smoke-belching vehicles. Another sought the removal of obstacles along sidewalks “for ‘Walk, Baguio, Walk’ to really work.”

The district office of the Department of Public Works and Highways vowed to use coconut made from coconut fiber in its slope protection and erosion control projects. In the eyes of a child, sustaining the walk rally would also strengthen family bonding while helping clear the urban air. “If you do care for us, I hope that you adults could start showing us you really do by leaving your cars at home,” said 11-year old Iszkra Samara Liporada in her message at the program launching. “Walk with us, walk with your children so we could get to know you, our parents, better,” she pleaded. – Ramon Dacawi