Soil test pushed at disputed Country Club school site

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city government and stakeholders will conduct soil test to determine viability of the lot identified as school site at the Baguio Country Club Village despite the opposition of the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC).

Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the test would “resolve with finality” whether or not the whole of the 8,860 square meters is geologically hazardous or if a portion of it is safe as school site.

The mayor said the report of the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources declaring the site as landslide prone did not conclusively say that the entire area is unstable.  

He said there is a possibility that some portions are safe and that mitigating measures can be done to remedy the situation.

JHMC recently prevented experts commissioned by the city to conduct the test despite earlier pronouncements agreeing to such.

The mayor said the decision to pursue the test was a consensus among the city through him and Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr.,  Baguio City District Engineering Office district engineer Alexander Castaneda, Baguio Country Club punong barangay Gil Lomboy, schools division superintendent Francis Cesar Brings, Baguio Country Club Village Elementary School head Jeannette Lacana, education program supervisor Reynaldo Umayat, Parents-Teachers Association president Danilo Esticong and faculty club president Laury Camilo Binay-an.

“We unanimously agreed to conduct the soil test and commission the services of Engr. Bonifacio dela Peña, Manager of BIP Steadfast Ground Exploration, the only accredited company to conduct soil testing in the city, to undertake the appropriate soil testing on the 8,860 square meters, more or less, identified for school site in order to be able to ascertain the stable areas where a permanent school building for the Country Club Village will be built considering the availability of the budget earmarked for the project under the Department of Public works and Highways (BCDEO) amounting to P10.4 million that was already bidded out and awaiting implementation. Further, we are respectfully requesting you to send your duly authorized representative to witness the conduct of the soil test on 7 and 8 March 2016 in order to facilitate the implementation of the project,” the stakeholders explained in a letter to JHMC president Jamie Eloise Agbayani. 

“If the whole area will not be feasible for the purpose pursuant to the results of the soil test, then we have no recourse but to construct the structure in the basketball court. However, if there will be some areas that will be identified as safe based on the soil test results, we believe that the school building should be built in the safe place with added mitigating measures,” they said

Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) president and chief operating officer Arnel Casanova and Agbayani objected to the lot’s use as school site on the ground of safety based on the report Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau of the DENR and suggested the use of the adjacent lot where the barangay basketball court is located.

But the mayor said the city has to exhaust all means to determine the feasibility of the pinpointed lot so as not to also deprive the barangay constituents of the amenities of having their own basketball court where they hold sports and other recreational activities.

The mayor said the lot was identified as a school building site on June 14, 2012 where a three-story school building will be constructed.

“The (area) is outside the fence of Camp John Hay and within the Baguio Country Club Barangay which is to be excluded from John Hay Reservation pursuant to No. 14 of the 19 conditionalities for the development of Camp John Hay per Resolution No. 362 series of 1994 which was approved by Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA),” the mayor said.