Inputs to new Baguio City charter change bill urged

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio Domogan encouraged residents here to submit inputs for the revision of the Baguio City Charter for consideration in the new bill to be filed by Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. in Congress.

            

“If you have ideas and suggestions which you think would help improve our charter then by all means come forward and articulate them or submit them to the drafting committee of our Congressman,” the mayor aired during the second public consultation held last Thursday on the Act to Revise the Changer of the City of Baguio.

            

The mayor who authored the original bill during his term as city representative to Congress said they will ensure that the new bill to be filed by Aliping will address the concerns of President Benigno S. Aquino III when he vetoed the bill filed by former Rep. Bernardo Vergara last year.

            

“We want to address the four items raised by the President especially the matter on alienable and disposable land.  We hope to reconcile the effect of the Free Patent law with the other modes of disposing alienable and disposable land in the city,” the mayor said

            

He said he will sit down with the drafting committee to refine and improve the provisions and to make them clear and precise particularly the grounds of veto cited by the President. 

            

Aquino in his veto message said the provisions of the bill “are all covered by the present Local Government Code” and questioned the provisions on the disposition of alienable and disposable land which he said “impinge on the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) exclusive mandate over control and supervision of (these) lots and run counter to the laws governing the disposition of townsite reservations.”         

He also said it was not clear what entity will be in charge of disposal alienable and disposable lots and further questioned the provision that proceeds from the sale of lands through miscellaneous sales applications shall accrue to the city and not to the national treasury.

Aquino also said that some of the provisions of the bill run counter to the Bases Convention and Development Authority (BCDA) Act of 1992 on the matter of disposition of properties already transferred to the BCDA.

Domogan disputed the grounds of veto saying there are concerns in the bill that the LGC cannot address like the settlement of the boundary dispute with Tuba municipality which cannot be carried out on the basis solely of the LGC; that the authority to process the sale of these lots will still rest with the DENR and the participation of the city government will only be as a member of the committee that will facilitate the processing; and that MSA as mode of disposing public lands without public bidding “has been in effect in Baguio under the present charter but only in identified areas.”

            

On the proceeds of the sale of public land accruing to the local treasury, the mayor said this should not have been cited as a ground by the President as this is not an amendment but an existing provision in the city charter.

The mayor said the President’s statement that some of the provisions of the bill run counter to the BCDA Act of 1992 on the matter of disposition of properties already transferred to the BCDA is not true as the bill only covers alienable and disposable public land and thus excludes the BCDA lots.

Aliping will schedule more consultations on the act before crafting the bill and filing it in Congress. 

This will be the city’s fourth attempt to update its charter.

Before the President’s veto, Vergara’s bill managed to get past the Lower House and the Senate courtesy of Senate Committee on Local Government chair Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who went out of his way to push for the passage of the bill.

Domogan during his term as congressman filed the bill twice but the legislations did not go beyond the Lower House. 

The city’s 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.