MORE NEWS, BAGUIO CITY

BCDA execs urged: Allow John Hay settlers to improve houses
BY AILEEN P. REFUERZO

BAGUIO CITY – The city council last Monday approved a resolution asking the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) to allow qualified occupants of lots within the 13 barangays situated within the Camp John Hay reservation to improve their houses.

In the resolution authored by Councilor Nicasio Aliping Jr., the body said several requests have been made through various resolutions from the city council for the segregation of the barangays for eventual award of the lots to qualified occupants.

The said resolutions are Resolution No. 91 series of 1996 requesting the BCDA to cause the immediate segregation of said barangays and for the issuance of titles to qualified occupants; Resolution No. 298 series of 1997 endorsing to the BCDA the joint resolution of Baguio Country Club associations to facilitate the segregation of their barangay; and Resolution No. 79 series of 1999 which reiterated the request to the BCDA.

However, the planned segregation appeared to have not taken off as planned. The last report of the committee then formed to facilitate the segregation process noted problems on the identification of the legitimate lot occupants and conflicts over the lots.

In view of the delay in the process, several lot occupants are now clamoring for permission to undertake improvement, repair and restoration of their houses in the areas. The said activities were stopped at the beginning of the segregation
process to fully identify the legitimacy of their claims.

They said over the years, the houses now need repairs and renovation and the
permission should be given since the segregation process has now dragged on.
The council apparently saw merit in the request of the residents and approved the resolution.

The 13 barangays are Camp 7, Country Club Village, Green Water Village, Happy Hallow, Hillside, Loakan-Liwanag, Loakan-Apugan, Loakan Proper, Lucnab, Scout Barrio, Sta. Scholastica, Lower Dagsian and Upper Dagsian.


CAR stat whiz kids ready for nat’l quiz
BAGUIO CITY — The top three statistics whiz kids in the Cordillera were selected from among first year college students here Nov. 13 to represent the region in a national level competition on the first week of December.

Cesar Higoy Jr., an Electronics and Communication Engineering freshman of Saint Louis University led two others namely Sybel Ngaseo, a BS nursing student of Benguet State University, and Alexis Massagan, a BS Education freshman of Kalinga-Apayao State College, Bulanao campus, emerged as second and third placers, respectively.

Dr. Freddie T. Bernal, OIC-regional director of the Commission on Higher Education, said the result of the Statistics is indicative of the effectiveness of teachers and schools in teaching Statistics as a component of preparatory Mathematics in secondary education.

With 15 participating schools and 29 individual contestants, the statistics quiz promotes and instills awareness and appreciation of the importance and value of statistics, especially in development planning. – Mike Guimbatan Jr.


Baguio UC athletes shine in Philippine olympic festival
BY GEN TOLEDO

UC athletes bag numerous medals in the recently concluded Philippine Olympic Festival, a nationwide sporting event at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, Manila, adding up to the glorious track record of highland athletes in the fields of athletics and alliedsports.

Freshman and 16 year old sprinter Rhemelyn Soriano managed to out-runco-competitors coming from different provinces in the country in the 100 meter and 200 meter dash, surprising other athletes with her first appearance in such an event by bringing home two gold medals.

Seemingly incidental, the young sprinter follows the tracks of Baguiopride and marathon queen Christabel Martes.

In the field of archery, April Lynne Sacpa and Jennifer Nagyasan targeted the gold medals, and went away with it for the Olympic round and over-all competition, respectively. In addition to the golds, a total of four silver and three bronze medals were also earned by thearchers in the persons of Joshua Mangomoc and Japeth Batallang.

The University of the Cordilleras has been known to churn off international athletes in the field of Wushu Sanshou for numbers of years now that even in the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and the South East Asian Games, three players in the person of Benjie Rivera and Mariane Mariano in the former event, and the addition of Mark Eddiva for the latter.

This will be the first appearance of the athletes with the exception of Eddiva as his second appearance in the SEA Games. Along with them is Eliezer Sunang to represent the country in shot put, also a UC student.

Not only is UC limited to Wushu, one silver plus four bronze medals were also won over in judo women's division in the POF. That is in addition to the two gold and bronze medals and a silver that the team secured in the National Judo Youth Championship in the same venue.

The Judokas were Jhona Dew-alan, Johara Taynan, Clarence Onanat,Maribel Posedio and Olivia Joy Lapurga. And though the Tae Kwon Do Jins only garnered two bronze medals in the Olympic festival, the team was the over-all champion in the Luzon CPJTae Kwon Do Championship with eight gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals which was held in Nueva Viscaya on August and champions in the senior division in the Luzon Inter-School Tae Kwon Do Championship in La Union last month with 11 gold medals, four silvers and six bronze. The team is headed by playing-coach Joel Likigan.

UC Athletic Director Yul Benosa says that "unlike before where support is limited to basketball and volleyball, the support for athletics and allied sports have drastically increased over the past two years which creates a venue for the school to develop the potentials of its students not only academically, but to become national and international athletes as well."


No parking zones designated : Traffic number coding suspended in Baguio
BY JULIE G. FIANZA

BAGUIO CITY-Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Jr., last week issued Administrative Order 218 suspending the number coding system for private vehicles from Nov. 22 to Jan. 19 next year.

This is to allow members residents to come together for family and school reunions, alumni get-togethers, sports events, and balikbayan activities, “to renew and revive the spirit of unity, peace, love and sharing.”

Bautista also bared with the grand “Christmas in Baguio” to be launched this December, various activities have been lined up, thus, tourists are expected to flock to the city.

First on the list is the 58th Annual Men’s Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament which started November 24 up to December 10 in the city.

More than 1,000 participants to the event are expected to arrive, from United States Mainland, Guam, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the Philippines. Vehicles of said golf enthusiasts are exempted from the traffic number coding scheme for the duration of the activity.

Earlier also, the mayor issued AO 212 which set the guidelines for vehicle parking along the Central Business District.

He said vehicles shall not be allowed to park along Lower and Upper General Luna Road; along Upper Mabini St. from Gen. Luna road junction up to the entrance of Mabini Pay Parking, and right side of Upper Mabini Street from
Mabini Bowling Lanes up to Session road junction at all times.

The stretch of Session road from Upper Mabini street down to Perfecto street (Mercury Drug) shall also not be allowed to vehicle parking, at all times.
The said AO was issued as to the recommendation of the Traffic Management Branch of the Baguio City Police Office, to address the constant critical traffic situation in the CBD.

Appropriate signs and markers shall be installed by the City Engineering Office in coordination with the TMB-BCPO to guide motorists, the AO also states.