by Dexter See
BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan has
answered issues on the market development plan of the city following barbs from
critics.
On the proposed development of the city
public market earlier questioned by several groups of market vendors, the mayor
said it was aimed at cleansing the market from dubious transactions of
purported leaders and their benefactors who had been sub-leasing their awarded
stalls at very excessive rentals.
“We pity our detractors for resorting to
blatant lies just to confuse our market vendors into believing that the city
government allegedly sold the market to a private company,” Domogan said,
adding it is clear in the contract signed by the local government with Uniwide
will be a build, operate, least and transfer scheme for a period of 30 years.
After the 30-year lease period, he said the
contract mandates that the developed market will be owned, managed and
administered by the city government which is contrary to the misinformation
being done by some of his detractors to mislead the vendors into believing
their crusade to discredit the efforts of the city to remove the massive
sub-leasing of stalls in the market.
Section 19 of the agreement provides that the
city government shall guarantee the security of tenure of the leasehold
awardees at the ground floor under the city government’s control and management
within emphasis that the city government shall have the control, supervision
and management of the ground floor of the man market building where the said
leasehold awardees will be accommodated and for them to continue dealing with
the city government.
According to the local chief executive, a
census of all the legitimate and illegitimate vendors was already done by the
city government and that all of the legitimate stallholders will have a place
in the ground floor once the market development will push through while the illegal
vendors will also have a place in the prescribed floor to be managed by the
city.
It was learned that the ones opposing the
proposed market development plan of the city government were individuals and
leaders of market vendors who own more than one stall and are sub-leasing the
same at excessive costs and taking advantage of the innocence of others
relative to the sub-leasing issues.
Domogan said the market development plan will
address the issue on sub-leasing because legitimate and illegitimate vendors
will deal directly with the city government and that the fees to be imposed are
much lower compared to the excessive rates being collected from them by the
stallholders that were given awards by the local government.
The validity of the market development plan
was already ruled upon by the Regional Trial court Branch 59 and affirmed by
the Court of Appeals.
However, the disgruntled market leaders
appealed the decision of the appellate court to the Supreme Court just to
satisfy their personal requirements of gaining from the sub-leasing of their
stalls at excessive prices for decades.
***
On the Irisan dump issue, the Environment
Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported
the city government is complying with consent decree it entered with
complainants before the court of Appeals for the closure of the Irisan dumpsite
and its eventual rehabilitation and conversion into an ecotourism park.
In a memorandum submitted to the CA Special
Sixth Division, Joyce Ann Almoite-Mangsat, Ecological Solid Waste Management
coordinator, said closure and rehabilitation of the open dumpsite is part of
the P80 million rehabilitation works currently implemented in the area.
Construction of the perimeter fence or
retaining wall at the northeastern side of the dumpsite is ongoing and around
45 percent done with reference to the start of the project implementation on
Jan. 14.
The monitoring team from the EMB-CAR and the
Office of the Solicitor-General found out pouring of concrete is monolithic and
that no weepers or similar devices were installed.
However, Donald Basing, project engineer of
Goldrich Construction, explained to team members that perforated pipes were
installed beneath the trash and will be installed at every level of the future.
At the southeastern portion, the team
observed that the rehabilitation works has not yet started but dredging of the
trash slide remains underway.
The team observed that a portion of the
western perimeter fence has collapsed because of the soil covering activity
which is part of the rehabilitation of the open dumpsite.
“Traces of the remains (wastes eroded from the
open dumpsite) during the trash slide on August 27, 2011 could still be
noticeable at the down slopes approaching Tuba, Benguet though some parts are
already vegetated,” the report added.
Basing told the monitoring team that the
dumping of dredged materials which is about 3,000 cubic meters from Bunham Lake
is part of the rehabilitation program but the said approach was not stated in
the scope of work in the restoration of the open dumpsite.
He said deviation was undertaken since they
are the contractor for both the dredging at Burnham Lake and the open dumpsite
restoration projects, thus, they thought of utilizing the dredged earth
materials for soil covering at the open dumpsite.
The team recommended to the contractor to
specify source of soil covering for the closure and rehabilitation of the open
dumpsite or submit to the EMB-CAR and other concerned offices any amendments or
deviation/s made on the engineering design or plan specifications.
It added the remaining trash that gushed down
slopes towards Tuba, Benguet although already covered with vegetation should be
cleared. To unburden the Irisan dumpsite, it was recommended that the city
government immediately dispose or sell the stockpiled compost materials
produced by the two Environmental Recycling System (ERS) machines.
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