BAGUIO CITY – Mayor-elect Benjamin B. Magalong expressed
his support to the proposed creation of the Baguio-La
Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay Development Authority (BLISTTDA) but he said
it should not serve as an added layer of bureaucracy in the current set up of
government.
The incoming local chief
executive said the proposed creation of the BLISTTDA will greatly help in
speeding up the development of the nearby towns of Benguet and lessen the
impact of development in Baguio.
Earlier, local chief
executives of BLISTT wrote Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate
committee on government corporations and public enterprises, stating their
opposition to the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 2169 or the bill that seeks to
create the Greater Baguio-Benguet Development Authority (GBBDA) because their
previous recommendations on the organizational structure of the authority and
its powers as well as composition were never considered in the draft bill that
was submitted for second reading.
Magalong also earlier
stated that congressmen and senators should listen to the plight of the BLISTT
people on what they want as the composition and the powers of the authority so
that what they will enacted is the desire of the affected people and not the
preference of individuals and groups that have their own interests in the
creation of the authority.
Outgoing Mayor Mauricio
G. Domogan branded the BLISTTDA and the proposed GBBDA as an added layer of
bureaucracy because of enormous powers it grants to the authority that seems to
undermine the local autonomy granted to local governments by the Local
Government Code of the Philippines and the right of the indigenous peoples
(IPs) to their ancestral domain as enshrined in the Indigenous Peoples Rights
Act (IPRA).
Domogan said the
authority should not interfere in projects funded by concerned government
agencies and local governments and it should only supervise and monitor the
implementation of projects funded through its initiative to avoid overlapping
of functions and avoid creating unnecessary conflict between the agencies and
the local governments and the authority.
Under the proposal of
the BLISTT mayors, the chairman of the authority should not be appointed by the
President but it should be elected among them to ensure the familiarity of the
prevailing situation in the BLISTT.
The Benguet provincial
board also passed Resolution No. 19-144 that strongly opposed the passage of SB
2169 considering its serious negative impact to the local autonomy of local
governments and its serious repercussions to the rights of the IPs over their
ancestral domain.
Civil society
organizations also signified their opposition to the Senate version of the
BLISTTDA which was crafted without required consultations with stakeholders for
them to air their observations on the contents of the proposed law.
The Senate version of
the BLISTTDA was allegedly withdrawn on third reading because of opposition
from the affected local governments. -- Dexter A. See
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