Rep Vergara refiles bill: Domogan’s bid to revise city charter gets boosted

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio Domogan Wednesday expressed high hopes that that the long overdue amendment of the age-old City Charter would finally be given due course this time after Rep. Bernardo Vergara revived Domogan’s bill and refiled the same before the Lower House.

The city charter’s revision was one of Domogan’s pet legislations during his term as congressman. His House Bill No. 3617 entitled An Act Revising the Charter of the City of Baguio was approved in the Lower House but was unacted upon in the Senate.

“I’m happy that Congressman Vergara refiled the said bill and hopefully it will be approved immediately by the Lower House and eventually by the Senate so that the amendment of our charter can be realized,” the mayor told his press briefing.

He said the amendment is long overdue considering that the charter has remained unchanged since it was written by Justice George Malcolm in 1909. The Charter even pre-dates the 1935 Constitution and has not yet been revised since its enactment so that almost all of its provisions have become obsolete and irrelevant.

Domogan earlier described his bill as a “mixed marriage of provision of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 and the provisions of the 1909 City Charter, as amended by the Revised Administrative Code of 1917 and of Presidential Proclamations.”

He said the bill “is expected to settle once and for all the jurisdictional boundary conflict between the City of Baguio and the town of Tuba in Benguet.”

Among the proposals under the bill are the following:

*The alienable and disposable public lands in the city known as the Baguio Townsite Reservation be titled in its name so that it can exert its power and authority to implement its approved land use and development plan.

*The issue of ownership over said townsite reservation be speedily settled in favor of qualified occupants/applicants which will likewise address the problems of squatting. This is so because after the said townsite reservation is titled in the name of the city and after segregating those portions for public needs, the remaining areas which are safe for residential lots using the model of QM and South Sanitary Camp subdivisions be transferred for reasonable consideration to the actual occupants and/or qualified applicants;

*The revenues of the city be tremendously increased. This is so because from the moment the issue of ownership over said townsite reservation had been settled in favor of the actual occupants and/or qualified applicants, they can now pay to the city government the reasonable consideration of the said land pursuant to Art. 1 Sect. 4b and Art. 15 Sect. 85, apply for the necessary building permits which will require them to pay the said building permit fees, and more importantly, they will now pay real estate taxes.”

The bill, according to the mayor also seeks “to institutionalize the payment of the national government of its contribution to the administrative expenses of the city of Baguio pursuant to the provision of Republic Act No. 4708.”

Furthermore, the proposed revision “treats on the improvement of the restructuring and reorganization of the offices of the city government with the creation of valid positions relevant to the present and future needs of the city.”