Irisan housing project on/ Baguio tourist limit
>> Thursday, March 17, 2022
CITY HALL BEAT
Aileen P. RefuerzoBAGJUIO CITY -- Mayor Benjamin Magalong and City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña announced that ground works are now ongoing at the Luna Terraces, the first socialized housing project of the city located in Irisan barangay following the project groundbreaking last February.
The project aims to put up a Socialized Permaculture Housing Community financed by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the Department of National Housing Authority.
As per the plan put together by the Plan and Design team headed by the offices of the City Planning and Development, City Engineering and City Buildings and Architecture, two buildings will initially be constructed with 270 units up for award under socialized payment terms to qualified families.
Beneficiaries will be selected based on criteria now being finalized by the Office of the City Social Welfare and Development Officer.
Priority will be given to informal settlers or families residing in danger areas or displaced by natural or human-induced disasters, among other criteria.
At present, the city has an estimated 15,000 families in need of socialized housing prompting the city government to scout for more lots to develop as housing for them.
The mayor said DHSUD Sec. Eduardo Del Rosario had expressed full support to the city's thrust to pursue more low cost housing projects.
The DHSUD will be funding the land development while the National Housing Authority will be providing funding for the construction of housing units.
NHA Region 1 and CAR-1 regional manager engineer Maria Belinda Sevalla said NHA had downloaded P50 million to the city for the construction of the two buildings. A total of P326 million was allotted for the entire project.
Dela Peña said they plan to build eight more buildings at the site.
Permaculture means "innovative framework for creating sustainable ways of living, how to grow food, build houses and create communities and minimize environmental impact at the same time."
The City Council in Resolution No. 240-2019 approved the use of the land located at Irisan owned by the local government for socialized housing of local government employees and as a resettlement area for qualified beneficiaries.
**
Baguio City will need more time and data to come up with a definitive decision on the threshold for tourist arrivals, Mayor Magalong said.
“As of now
what we have is just the initial data and it not enough. Baka hilaw, baka
kulang so we make sure that we have sufficient data before we analyze and
evaluate and then we can come up with the right decision,” the mayor said.
The baseline number of tourists for the study was set at 20,000 tourists a day but daily tourist arrivals had been reaching only 8,000-9,000 in the previous days.
“It is not enough basis for our study. We need to hit a range of 15,000-20,000 consistently for us to have relevant data so we will need more time. Let’s wait,” the mayor said.
The mayor said the city needs to set a limit for visitors to achieve a new normal sustainable tourism to avoid the effects of overtourism and ensure the comfort and health and safety of both the residents and visitors as well as also meet the needs of the economic sector.
The 20,000 study baseline was set after the city received such number of visitors in the last weekend of February and assessments on vehicle and human traffic movement turned out encouraging.
The study uses parameters on traffic and crowd movement manageability and air quality.
The mayor said the current number of tourists in the city is expected as the industry is just starting to pick up after the slump. Another cause is the current high cost of fuel which makes travel expenses prohibitive.
As to questions on the city’s entry protocols, City Tourism Officer Alec Mapalo reiterated that the city needs to maintain entry requirements particularly registration to monitor arrivals, proof of vaccination and negative test results “to ensure mutual protection as a surge is still possible without protection.”
The baseline number of tourists for the study was set at 20,000 tourists a day but daily tourist arrivals had been reaching only 8,000-9,000 in the previous days.
“It is not enough basis for our study. We need to hit a range of 15,000-20,000 consistently for us to have relevant data so we will need more time. Let’s wait,” the mayor said.
The mayor said the city needs to set a limit for visitors to achieve a new normal sustainable tourism to avoid the effects of overtourism and ensure the comfort and health and safety of both the residents and visitors as well as also meet the needs of the economic sector.
The 20,000 study baseline was set after the city received such number of visitors in the last weekend of February and assessments on vehicle and human traffic movement turned out encouraging.
The study uses parameters on traffic and crowd movement manageability and air quality.
The mayor said the current number of tourists in the city is expected as the industry is just starting to pick up after the slump. Another cause is the current high cost of fuel which makes travel expenses prohibitive.
As to questions on the city’s entry protocols, City Tourism Officer Alec Mapalo reiterated that the city needs to maintain entry requirements particularly registration to monitor arrivals, proof of vaccination and negative test results “to ensure mutual protection as a surge is still possible without protection.”
CITY HALL BEAT
No alert level for Baguio yet/ Face to face classes
BAGUIO CITY – Mayor
Benjamin Magalong will not recommend downgrading the city’s alert level to 1 in
March citing the necessity of retaining some health restrictions to avoid a
Covid-19 relapse.
“While we are now in the process of gradually transitioning to the new normal phase, we do not want to rush it. We are easing up our protocols but we still need to retain certain public health restrictions to sustain our momentum. So ‘wag muna,” the mayor said.
The mayor also said he does not favor scrapping alert level classifications in the country as yet saying sectors still have to make sure that all the necessary safety measures and systems are sound and in place before doing so.
He said the country is still in the process of regaining its economic footing and therefore needs to observe caution in lifting the restrictions.
He however said the decision still lies on the national government based on the recommendation of health experts.
“We will just wait for their decision and act accordingly,” he said.
The city is currently working on the resiliency and recovery plan to chart its economic rebound. A pandemic exit plan is also being drafted to serve as a guide for the city to gradually transition into the new normal phase.
***
Mayor Magalong is pushing for the resumption of face-to-face classes in the city to prevent the learning crisis from worsening and to cut losses in students' productivity brought about by school closures.
But this will all depend on the readiness and capability of the schools in ensuring the health and safety of the students which the mayor said has to be hastened.
The mayor said that the two years of school closure has impacted the productivity of students and according to the National Economic Development Authority, the loss when translated to monetary value would mean billions of pesos worth of losses in terms of forgone future wages and productivity.
“We have to pursue the reopening of face-to-face classes and to do that, we have to speed up putting in place all the safety systems so as not to compromise the health and safety of our students,” the mayor said.
The mayor's Executive Asst. IV Althea Alberto said the city in coordination with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) had spelled out the guidelines for higher education institutions (HEIs) like colleges and universities intending to open face-to-face scheme for all courses apart from non-medical ones.
The requirements include inspection by the City Health Services Office and endorsement from the city government to CHED.
She said as of Feb. 23, two universities --St. Louis University and University of Baguio -- had signified intentions to conduct face-to-face classes for other courses.
For basic education institutions, guidelines are still being awaited from the Department of Education albeit the city had received request from the Philippine Science High School.
Alberto said as parameters, schools must retrofit classrooms, facilities and schedules as they would need to limit the number or students at a time to be able to implement protocols on on physical distancing, proper ventilation and others.
"It all boils down to the schools' ability to maintain observance of the minimum public health standards," she said.
The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had raised the need to reopen schools saying the “risk of being in school is far greater than the risk of being in school.”
“Classroom learning must continue to avert the learning crisis aggravated by the closure because students are falling further behind in their learning and basic reading and math skills are in sharp decline for the most vulnerable students,” it said.
“Education is powerful tool to fight poverty children with less schooling are more likely to live in poverty for the rest of their lives. Besides, school closure is affecting the mental health of an entire generation of children,” it warned.
“While we are now in the process of gradually transitioning to the new normal phase, we do not want to rush it. We are easing up our protocols but we still need to retain certain public health restrictions to sustain our momentum. So ‘wag muna,” the mayor said.
The mayor also said he does not favor scrapping alert level classifications in the country as yet saying sectors still have to make sure that all the necessary safety measures and systems are sound and in place before doing so.
He said the country is still in the process of regaining its economic footing and therefore needs to observe caution in lifting the restrictions.
He however said the decision still lies on the national government based on the recommendation of health experts.
“We will just wait for their decision and act accordingly,” he said.
The city is currently working on the resiliency and recovery plan to chart its economic rebound. A pandemic exit plan is also being drafted to serve as a guide for the city to gradually transition into the new normal phase.
***
Mayor Magalong is pushing for the resumption of face-to-face classes in the city to prevent the learning crisis from worsening and to cut losses in students' productivity brought about by school closures.
But this will all depend on the readiness and capability of the schools in ensuring the health and safety of the students which the mayor said has to be hastened.
The mayor said that the two years of school closure has impacted the productivity of students and according to the National Economic Development Authority, the loss when translated to monetary value would mean billions of pesos worth of losses in terms of forgone future wages and productivity.
“We have to pursue the reopening of face-to-face classes and to do that, we have to speed up putting in place all the safety systems so as not to compromise the health and safety of our students,” the mayor said.
The mayor's Executive Asst. IV Althea Alberto said the city in coordination with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) had spelled out the guidelines for higher education institutions (HEIs) like colleges and universities intending to open face-to-face scheme for all courses apart from non-medical ones.
The requirements include inspection by the City Health Services Office and endorsement from the city government to CHED.
She said as of Feb. 23, two universities --St. Louis University and University of Baguio -- had signified intentions to conduct face-to-face classes for other courses.
For basic education institutions, guidelines are still being awaited from the Department of Education albeit the city had received request from the Philippine Science High School.
Alberto said as parameters, schools must retrofit classrooms, facilities and schedules as they would need to limit the number or students at a time to be able to implement protocols on on physical distancing, proper ventilation and others.
"It all boils down to the schools' ability to maintain observance of the minimum public health standards," she said.
The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had raised the need to reopen schools saying the “risk of being in school is far greater than the risk of being in school.”
“Classroom learning must continue to avert the learning crisis aggravated by the closure because students are falling further behind in their learning and basic reading and math skills are in sharp decline for the most vulnerable students,” it said.
“Education is powerful tool to fight poverty children with less schooling are more likely to live in poverty for the rest of their lives. Besides, school closure is affecting the mental health of an entire generation of children,” it warned.
CITY HALL BEAT
Baguio on Alert Level 1 looking at 20,000 daily tourist arrivals
BAGUIO CITY -- Mayor
Benjamin Magalong said the city is looking at 20,000 daily tourist cap as
allowable threshold for tourist arrivals even as assessments continue to
determine the tolerable limit for visitors vis-à-vis parameters on traffic and
crowd movement manageability and air quality.
Last Feb. 25, the city posted the highest single day tourist arrivals since the pandemic started at around 15,000.
The weekend tourist crowd was estimated at 20,000 and vehicle and human traffic was observed to be fine prompting observers to consider the number as the possible daily limit.
The city has been placed under alert level 1 beginning March 1 entailing more relaxed quarantine rules including entry protocols for tourists.
But as much as the city wants to go all out in reopening its tourism industry to help businesses and its economy recover from the pandemic-driven slump, it also has to consider the need to avoid effects of over-tourism and ensure the comfort and safety of both the residents and visitors by maintaining some health protocols due to the continuing Covid-19 threat, the mayor said.
Thus there is a need to determine the threshold and still maintain some entry requirements like registration with the visita.baguio.gov.ph to monitor arrivals and ensure that the limit is observed, vaccination and negative test results for those who are not immunized.
City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo said the city wants to “move towards the new normal sustainable tourism” where the needs of the residents, visitors and the economic sectors are balanced and met.
“We can’t afford to really overcrowd especially with Covid-19 still around but at the same time allow as many tourists we can tolerate to also help our businessmen recover,” he said.
Mapalo said the city’s maximum accommodation capacity is 25,000 to 30,000 but the city can set its threshold at 20,000.
He said the city needs to maintain entry requirements particularly registration to monitor arrivals and requirement of vaccination proofs and negative test results “to ensure mutual protection as a surge is still possible without protection.”
“Baguio has the highest vaccination rate among local government units in the north. We can have a good level of confidence for our tourism frontliners (they are 100% vaccinated) and residents, but we like the same confidence for our visitors, thus the required full vaccination before entry. Triage is a frontline defense to make sure a visitor is truly fully vaccinated,” he said.
Since being downgraded to alert level 2 status last Feb. 16, the city did not impose a quota on tourist arrivals to determine up to what extent the city can take in tourists without sacrificing the safety and comfort of both the residents and the visitors themselves.
Mapalo said that after the city lowered the tourist limit to 4,000 due to its alert level 3 status last January, the city’s actual tourist arrivals dropped sharply last January with only 39,507 as compared to December 2021’s record of 147,145.
It picked up last February with the city registering 46,676 only from Feb. 1-20.
***
City Health officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said downgrading of the city’s alert classification to level 1 by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases was due to its highly improved Covid-19 situation.
Galpo said the city satisfied the IATF criteria for such status after registering low epidemic risk level owing to the rapid decrease in daily attack rate, growth rate and health care utilization rate beginning last Jan. 23.
She said the city also passed the other pre-requisites particularly high vaccination rate and safety seal coverage.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong earlier said he was not keen on having the city’s alert classification lowered to level 1 this month to avoid a relapse but said he was not surprised of the IATF’s decision because of the city’s mended Covid status.
Galpo said the city’s average daily attack rate (ADAR) measured at 4.4 per 100,000 population was at medium risk level while its two-week growth rate of -78 percent was at low resulting to a low risk epidemic risk classification.
The negative growth rate when cross tabulated with the low bed utilization rate resulted to a low rating that qualified the city to alert level 1 status.
The city’s high vaccination rate currently at 98.88 percent for adult population and 82.64 percent for 12-17 age group and high compliance of government and private establishments to health and safety protocols were also main considerations.
Cases during the omicron surge jumped to an average of 87 daily during week Jan. 2-8, drastically increased to 403 in week Jan. 9-15 and peaked to 637 a day in week Jan. 16-22 before going down to 334 daily in week Jan. 23-29.
For week Feb. 20-26, the daily case average dipped to 13.
For the same period, the case positivity rate also decreased to 2.90 percent from the previous week’s 5.7 percent. The highest positivity rate reached by the city during this omicron surge was at 47.9 percent on week Jan. 9-15.
The weekly infection growth rate has remained less than 1 in the last five weeks which meant that transmission has decreased. This went as high as 7.71 on Jan. 2-8 and 6.9 on Jan. 9-15 before going down to 0.77 on Jan. 23-29.
The ADAR and TWGR went as high as 75/100,000 and 187 percent respectively during the surge.
Hospital care utilization rate was down to 21.71 percent from 46.68 percent while isolation facility bed occupancy also plunged to 3.01 percent from 8.84 percent.
Galpo said the city has cut down its isolation bed capacity to only 432 from 938 with only the Baguio City Community Isolation Unit continuing to operate.
Last Feb. 25, the city posted the highest single day tourist arrivals since the pandemic started at around 15,000.
The weekend tourist crowd was estimated at 20,000 and vehicle and human traffic was observed to be fine prompting observers to consider the number as the possible daily limit.
The city has been placed under alert level 1 beginning March 1 entailing more relaxed quarantine rules including entry protocols for tourists.
But as much as the city wants to go all out in reopening its tourism industry to help businesses and its economy recover from the pandemic-driven slump, it also has to consider the need to avoid effects of over-tourism and ensure the comfort and safety of both the residents and visitors by maintaining some health protocols due to the continuing Covid-19 threat, the mayor said.
Thus there is a need to determine the threshold and still maintain some entry requirements like registration with the visita.baguio.gov.ph to monitor arrivals and ensure that the limit is observed, vaccination and negative test results for those who are not immunized.
City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo said the city wants to “move towards the new normal sustainable tourism” where the needs of the residents, visitors and the economic sectors are balanced and met.
“We can’t afford to really overcrowd especially with Covid-19 still around but at the same time allow as many tourists we can tolerate to also help our businessmen recover,” he said.
Mapalo said the city’s maximum accommodation capacity is 25,000 to 30,000 but the city can set its threshold at 20,000.
He said the city needs to maintain entry requirements particularly registration to monitor arrivals and requirement of vaccination proofs and negative test results “to ensure mutual protection as a surge is still possible without protection.”
“Baguio has the highest vaccination rate among local government units in the north. We can have a good level of confidence for our tourism frontliners (they are 100% vaccinated) and residents, but we like the same confidence for our visitors, thus the required full vaccination before entry. Triage is a frontline defense to make sure a visitor is truly fully vaccinated,” he said.
Since being downgraded to alert level 2 status last Feb. 16, the city did not impose a quota on tourist arrivals to determine up to what extent the city can take in tourists without sacrificing the safety and comfort of both the residents and the visitors themselves.
Mapalo said that after the city lowered the tourist limit to 4,000 due to its alert level 3 status last January, the city’s actual tourist arrivals dropped sharply last January with only 39,507 as compared to December 2021’s record of 147,145.
It picked up last February with the city registering 46,676 only from Feb. 1-20.
***
City Health officer Dr. Rowena Galpo said downgrading of the city’s alert classification to level 1 by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases was due to its highly improved Covid-19 situation.
Galpo said the city satisfied the IATF criteria for such status after registering low epidemic risk level owing to the rapid decrease in daily attack rate, growth rate and health care utilization rate beginning last Jan. 23.
She said the city also passed the other pre-requisites particularly high vaccination rate and safety seal coverage.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong earlier said he was not keen on having the city’s alert classification lowered to level 1 this month to avoid a relapse but said he was not surprised of the IATF’s decision because of the city’s mended Covid status.
Galpo said the city’s average daily attack rate (ADAR) measured at 4.4 per 100,000 population was at medium risk level while its two-week growth rate of -78 percent was at low resulting to a low risk epidemic risk classification.
The negative growth rate when cross tabulated with the low bed utilization rate resulted to a low rating that qualified the city to alert level 1 status.
The city’s high vaccination rate currently at 98.88 percent for adult population and 82.64 percent for 12-17 age group and high compliance of government and private establishments to health and safety protocols were also main considerations.
Cases during the omicron surge jumped to an average of 87 daily during week Jan. 2-8, drastically increased to 403 in week Jan. 9-15 and peaked to 637 a day in week Jan. 16-22 before going down to 334 daily in week Jan. 23-29.
For week Feb. 20-26, the daily case average dipped to 13.
For the same period, the case positivity rate also decreased to 2.90 percent from the previous week’s 5.7 percent. The highest positivity rate reached by the city during this omicron surge was at 47.9 percent on week Jan. 9-15.
The weekly infection growth rate has remained less than 1 in the last five weeks which meant that transmission has decreased. This went as high as 7.71 on Jan. 2-8 and 6.9 on Jan. 9-15 before going down to 0.77 on Jan. 23-29.
The ADAR and TWGR went as high as 75/100,000 and 187 percent respectively during the surge.
Hospital care utilization rate was down to 21.71 percent from 46.68 percent while isolation facility bed occupancy also plunged to 3.01 percent from 8.84 percent.
Galpo said the city has cut down its isolation bed capacity to only 432 from 938 with only the Baguio City Community Isolation Unit continuing to operate.
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