BAGUIO CITY

50% of Cordillera areas risky, unfit for habitation, says MGB regional chief
BY DEXTER A SEE

BAGUIO CITY – Thousands of residents in the cordillera mountain ranges are exposed to geohazards.

Engineer Neoman dela Cruz, regional director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau said over 50 percent of the mountainous areas in the region are considered geohazards and unfit for habitation.

However, the fact remains most of the indigenous people’s communities are located in the different provinces of the region, and they prefer to build their houses at mountain slopes so that they could easily till the soil for the production of fruits and vegetables for their daily sustenance.

Dela Cruz said the dangers confronting the indigenous peoples include landslides, rockslides, ground subsidence or sinking, and flooding which put the people’s lives in great danger.

At present, the MGB office in the Cordillera is conducting geohazard mapping of all the areas in the region to pinpoint geologically hazardous places to guide the people where to build their houses.

Upon the determination of geohazard areas, the regional MGB will identify the appropriate relocation sites for affected communities.

The concerned local government units will then undertake the relocation of their affected constituents.

The conduct of a massive geohazard mapping was prompted by a series of huge landslides in the different parts of the country that claimed thousands of lives over the past several years.

Dela cruz advised individuals and companies planning to build structures in mountainous areas to first subject the site to geological assessments to determine the possible mitigating the measures that would be undertaken to prevent accidents in the future.

Last year, the MGB declared that some 60 percent of the total land area of Baguio City as geohazard.

With the findings, the city government and other stakeholders must be careful in constructing their structures especially at identified landslides and subsidence prone areas, he said.

Except flooding, Dela Cruz said, low lying areas in the region, particularly those in Abra, Apayao, Kalinga and Lamut, Ifugao are relatively safe.

The MGB has also identified sinking areas on main roads of the region especially in several sections of the Baguio-Bontoc-Banaue Road, popularly known as Halsema highway due to natural and man-made activities.

He appealed to the local government units in the region to strictly implement the recommendations of the geological team to prevent losses in lives and properties in the event of calamities.


Baguio multimillion road controversy:Ebdane orders Cordi DPWH execs: Hasten flyover project
BY DEXTER A SEE

BAGUIO CITY – Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. ordered officials of the Cordillera Department of Public Works and Highways to hasten completion of the programs of work and detailed estimates for the P64 million remaining balance to complete the construction of the controversial flyover project at the rotunda of the Baguio General Hospital here.

Ebdane also ordered DPWH-Car regional director Mariano Alquisa to fastrack the pre-construction works at the project site in preparation for the release of the P64 million to complete the flyover structure.

The DPWH Secretary issued instructions to Alquisa that funds for the completion of the project will be sourced out from other sources of funds to ensure the second flyover in this mountain resort city will be completed before the celebration of its centennial anniversary in 2009.

In 2000, the project cost for the completion of the flyover was only P88 million, P44 million coming from the savings of the P1.2billion Marcos highway rehabilitation project and the rest will come from the DPWH regular infrastructure fund.

However, the stiff opposition of some previous politicians and civic groups here caused the delay in the implementation of the project for the past six years that resulted to the increase in the project cost to P180 million brought about by the unstable prices of construction materials.

Alquisa disclosed that the early completion of the project would be one of the major gifts of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the people of Baguio during its centennial anniversary on September 1, 2009.

The BGH flyover project was proposed by a European urban planner who came to the city in the early 1990s to ease the projected traffic congestion in the area in the near future.

Alquisa added that they are doing their best to comply with Ebdane’s order to ensure that the agency would be able to meet the deadline for the project’s completion in time for the city’s centennial anniversary.

Aside from the P88million earlier budgeted for the project, the DPWH has earmarked P20 million from this year’s national budget to ensure that continuous works will go on so as not to cause inconveniences to the motoring public.

Alquisa appealed to the local residents and tourists especially those inconvenienced by on going construction activities at the flyover area to bear with them because there will be smooth flow of traffic in the area after the project’s completion.


Curfew set for Baguio youth
BY DEXTER SEE AND MIKE GUIMBATAN

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Reinaldo A. Bautista Jr. ordered the enforcement of an experimental curfew for minors, that would begin at 7 p.m. instead of the usual 9 p.m. in the next 30 days to decrease rapidly increasing crime incidents involving the youth.

If the experiment bears positive results, the mayor would recommend to the city council that it makes the 7 p.m. curfew permanent through an amendatory ordinance.

Senior Supt. Moises Guevarra, director of the Baguio City Police Office, said that the earlier curfew hours was agreed upon by various sectors in the city during a recent meeting on the alarming increase in the city’s crime rate.

School officials, parents and teachers groups, and youth organizations, among others, hailed the new curfew and said that this could be a more proactive and definite step in addressing the proliferation of gangs and fraternities in this mountain resort city.

Bautista said various youth groups in the different schools here are considered as gangs, not fraternities, because they refuse to register with school authorities and prefer to operate underground so they could pursue their clandestine activities.

Initially, school officials requested for more police visibility in their respective campuses especially during the time their students enter classes, during noon break and when they go home in the afternoon.

Under the new rules on curfew, the only minors who would be exempted are youths who are accompanied by their parents or guardians and those who would be authorized by their schools to conduct co-curricular activities or practices beyond 7 p.m.

Ordinance No.71, series of 1991, earlier mandated curfew for minors from 9 pm to 5 am daily.

However, the ordinance has been implemented only intermittently or on an “ningas-cogon” basis.

It is usually enforced only after a series of youth-related violent incidents such gang wars occurred.

Guevarra said his policemen will strictly enforce the new curfew order to instill discipline in the youth and to maintain peace in this prime tourist destination.

He said that with the new curfew order, he expects the number of crimes involving the youth as victims or offenders to go down.