Congress amendments To Baguio charter eyed

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city will take yet another crack at having its age-old charter amended as Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. agreed to refile the bill in Congress, Mayor Mauricio Domogan said on Wednesday.

            

This will be the city’s fourth attempt to update its charter.  Domogan during his term as congressman filed the bill twice but the legislations did not go beyond the Lower House. 

Former Rep. Bernardo Vergara refiled Domogan’s bill which managed to get past the Lower House and the Senate but the same was vetoed by President Benigno S. Aquino to the surprise of the city officialdom and Senate Committee on Local Government chair Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who went out of his way to push for the passage of the bill.

“We are happy that Congressman Aliping committed to refile the bill so that we will have another chance to amend our outdated charter and of course to further improve the provisions that were questioned by the President,” the mayor said.

Aquino in his veto message to the House of Representatives dated January 17 said the intention of the bill was “laudable” but the provisions “are all covered by the present Local Government Code.”

            

The President also questioned the provisions on the disposition of alienable and disposable land which he said “impinge on the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) exclusive mandate over control and supervision of (these) lots and run counter to the laws governing the disposition of townsite reservations.”           

He also said it was not clear what entity will be in charge of disposal alienable and disposable lots and further questioned the provision that proceeds from the sale of lands through miscellaneous sales applications shall accrue to the city and not to the national treasury.

Aquino also said that some of the provisions of the bill run counter to the Bases Convention and Development Authority (BCDA) Act of 1992 on the matter of disposition of properties already transferred to the BCDA.

The grounds cited by the President were disputed by the mayor saying there are concerns in the bill that the LGC cannot address like the settlement of the boundary dispute with Tuba municipality which cannot be carried out on the basis solely of the LGC; that the authority to process the sale of these lots will still rest with the DENR and the participation of the city government will only be as a member of the committee that will facilitate the processing; and that MSA as mode of disposing public lands without public bidding “has been in effect in Baguio under the present charter but only in identified areas.”

            

On the proceeds of the sale of public land accruing to the local treasury, the mayor said this should not have been cited as a ground by the President as this is not an amendment but an existing provision in the city charter.

The mayor said the President’s statement that some of the provisions of the bill run counter to the BCDA Act of 1992 on the matter of disposition of properties already transferred to the BCDA is not true as the bill only covers alienable and disposable public land and thus excludes the BCDA lots.

Domogan said what the city can do is to refine and clarify the provisions in the new bill to be filed by Aliping so that the President will be enlightened on the intent and wisdom of the provisions.

             

The city’s charter has remained unchanged since it was written by Justice George Malcolm in 1909.  The Charter even pre-dates the 1935 Constitution and has not yet been revised since its enactment so that almost all of its provisions have become obsolete and irrelevant.