Solon wants Burnham Park returned to national gov’t

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY – rep. Bernardo M. Vergara here filed a legislative measure declaring the historic and scenic Burnham Park, the city’s prime tourist destination, as a National Park and appropriating the necessary national funds for its maintenance, administration, operation and development.

Vergara’s bill reiterates the intent of past legislative measures submitted in the 10th Congress as embodied in House Bill (HB) No. 1765, the 12th Congress under HB No. 3477, the 13th Congress under HB No. 2001 and in the 14th Congress contained under HB No. 509 to have Burnham Park as a national park worthy of national support befitting its historical significance and tourism generating potential in Northern Luzon.

The lawmaker said national funds that will be provided by the national government will be used to continuously upgrade the park’s existing facilities and creation of new tourist-catering eco-friendly facilities to ensure that tourists will be coming back and forth to this mountain resort city to have a glimpse of the innovations in the park based at the heart of the city.

Burnham Park was designed and developed in the 1930s by famous American architect Daniel Burnham, a noted urban planner of his time known for his creation of famous American cities like Chicago and Washington D.C..

Furthermore, Philippine historical records indicate the importance of Burnham Park to the city’s growth and development as a premier tourist destination north of Metro Manila, having served as a crowd-drawing attraction of the city.

Records show that Burnham Park occupies over 31.6 hectares of land area and it features among others a man-made lagoon, a soccer field and parade grounds , beautifully landscaped greenery, a forested enclave, an outdoor sports area, a skating rink, a children’s playground and biking area and picnic sections for promenading residents and visitors.

Vergara underscored Burnham Park serves as an ecological sanctuary and nature’s lung facility, thus, its scenic beauty and lush environments have made the park a favourite promenade place of this mountain resort city.

In 1981, former president Ferdinand e. Marcos transferred the maintenance and operation of the park from the city government to the national government by virtue of Presidential Decree 1762 and the same was subsequently ceded to the Philippine tourism Authority (PTA) through Proclamation 2144 and latter on in 1989 to the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC).

Through Executive order No. 224 signed by former President Fidel v. Ramos in 1995, the park’s management, administration and maintenance were transferred to the city government with provisions for annual upkeep and development needs subsidized by the PTA.

Vergara claimed in the last 10 years, as foreseen by previous legislative submissions, the city government experienced financial difficulty in addressing Burnham park’s annual maintenance, operations and development needs given the drastic budgetary reductions in PTA’s contractual obligations despite applying proper management procedures, which harnessed private sectoral assistance, the city government found it burdensome to administer the park, much more fund development initiatives, as the regular collections from park operations were insufficient even for minimal maintenance needs. Subsequent presidential policies, enunciated and executive orders issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have yielded insubstantial assistance to make the park a financially viable and environmentally nurtured to sustain its ecological and tourism importance to the city.