Demolishing 273 Marcos Highway establishments

EDITORIAL

The Baguio City local government in coordination with the Dept. of Public Works and Highways-Baguio City District Engineering Office has issued demolition notices to owners of 273 establishments along Marcos highway found to have encroached in road-right-of-way of the national road for them to voluntarily take out their structures that encroached on one of the main highways in the city.

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said there is a need to immediately dismantle the encroachments to make traffic smoother. He said the local government and the DPH-BCDEO recently issued to establishment owners  second demolition notices and that third demolition notices will be issued to them  next week to comply with the 3-notice rule prior to outright removal of improvements.

The mayor said the local government and the DPWH-BCDEO will be scheduling demolition of encroachments anytime right after the grace period provided them to demolish their improvements.      

Under prevailing rules and regulations, owners of establishments who were issued notices of demolition for encroaching on road-right-of-way of the Palispis-Aspiras highway or other national roads in the city can file their appeal with the Public Works Secretary.

Owners of establishments that encroached on the road-rights-of-way of national roads will be issued three notices for them to voluntarily remove or dismantle the structures they built over portions of the road within a 21-day period and their refusal will constrain the local government and the DPWH-BCDEO to dismantle illegal structures.

Magalong ordered the CBAO, in coordination with the DPWH-BCDEO, to issue notices to identified owners of establishments that encroached on the road-right-of-way of the Palispis-Aspiras highway so the dismantling of the structures could immediately be done once they refuse to comply with the request of voluntary demolition.

The city mayor earlier inspected erring establishments along the road with CBAO and DPWH-BCDEO officials and other major roads around the city.

Notices were issued to establishment owners but according to the city information office, no concrete actions were done by owners to dismantle the structures they erected on roads.

City folks are awaiting action of the city government. This considering that even at the Busol Watershed, scheduled demolition of structures built by squatters in the city’s main water source was halted after they appealed to the mayor’s office to study the matter more extensively.