PNoy pressed to declare Kennon as national park

TUBA, Benguet -  The historic  Kennon Road as a “national park” gets a fresh push from the Japanese community in Baguio City and Benguet, which vowed to ask President Benigno Aquino III to declare the century-old highway system, also called Zigzag Road,  leading to Baguio City and the Cordillera Administrative Region,  as a national park.

Kennon Road which played  a significant and historic role in the creation and development of Baguio City should be turned into a national park so it would be preserved and maintained, Filipino-Japanese Foundation of Northern Luzon (FJFNL) Executive Director Leopoldo Escano said.

“Kennon Road should be declared as a national park and should be preserved as a heritage site,” Escano said during the recent 110th anniversary of the entry of Japanese workers in the construction of Kennon Road.

Built in the  early 1900s, Kennon Road is the oldest mountain highway serving as the main access route to the city and the rest of the Cordillera Region.

The construction of the road commenced in 1903 by cutting across the mountains of Benguet with the combined efforts of Filipinos, Americans, Filipino-Chinese and Japanese nationals. It was considered one of the most difficult and expensive civil engineering projects of its day, funded by then newly-established colonial government.

More than 2,300 foreign and local workers worked on the road.

Besides Filipino engineers and construction workers and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headed by Col. Lyman Kennon, foreigners from 36 countries were recruited to work on the road.

About 1,500 were Japanese.

Kennon is the preferred route by motorists as it is the shortest way to and from the lowlands. It is, however, prone to landslides. 

The government is  now focusing on the rehabilitation of the road to make it an all-weather road, and at the most is thinking of privatizing it for its efficient upkeep.

FJFNL Chairman Carlos Teraoka, who once served as ambassador, said the  privatization of Kennon Road is a good option to be considered by the government to improve the maintenance of the road and the comfort  and safety of motorists and commuters.

Teraoka said it is better if the private sector takes care of the  the Kennon Road maintenance.

Last year, DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson announced that the operation of Kennon Road may be privatized.  He said that privatizing the road would save money for the government.

Several years ago,  Benguet congressman Ronald Cosalan also proposed in Congress that Kennon Road be declared a national heritage site.

The attention though being given to Kennon Road poses great risks from a looming mining industry along the river banks of the Bued River.

In the past years,  small scale mining, now the size and operation of medium-scale, had been operating along Kennon Road, affecting the highway's natural environment.

Once major road artery has been declared a national park, mining activities will be stopped.