Gordon: No to parking building in Burnham; SM structures hit

By Elisio S. Maraon

BAGUIO CITY – Sen. Richard J. Gordon said he will not allow construction of a parking building within Burnham Park even as residents assailed SM City Baguio’s ongoing and planned building constructions in the City of Pines. 

A concerned citizen turned a public hearing presided by Gordon here into a venue for raising their complaints against SM City Baguio and other problems faced by the city.

During the recent hearing on Senate Bill No. 1692 or the Baguio City, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay Development Authority, Monin Navarro, a board member of the Baguio Heritage Foundation, raised immediate problems in Baguio, which included SM’s Sky Ranch and its plan to build a condominium at the GSIS owned forest park by Convention Center; and the planned parking structures at the Burnham Park.

“These problems could not wait for the BLISTTDA. They need the Senate’s immediate attention,” she said.

Officials of the University of the Philippines and the University of the Cordilleras have filed a complaint against SM for the noise, sound and other pollution that would be created by the Sky Ranch, an amusement park being constructed near the premises of both academic institutions.

Both universities also sent representatives to the hearing on the proposed measure which seeks to create a development authority to provide an avenue for greater local government cooperation between Baguio City and the municipalities of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay for a collectively planned development of the area, delivery of basic services and implementation of projects in view of the common vision for economic development, improved governance and better quality of living for the people

In response, Gordon said the problems of the country’s Summer Capital, which is already overloaded, should be resolved or President Rodrigo R. Duterte could also close Baguio City down like he did in Boracay so it could recover from the despoiling that it has suffered due to overloading.

Gordon gave assurance that parking structures will not be built at Burnham Park and was also receptive to Navarro’s suggestion of implementing a moratorium on the constructions of multi-level buildings in Baguio City.