Honoring a centenarian / GSIS lot controversy

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo  

BAGUIO CITY – Another lady centenarian was honored by the city council joining the ranks of the city’s icons of longevity, lighthouses of wisdom and pillars of moral strength. 

The city council last Monday approved Resolution No. 21 series of 2019 honoring Concepcion Colcol of DPS Compound barangay who turned 100 last Dec. 8.

The third child in a brood of six, Colcol was born in 1918 to parents from Sto. Tomas, La Union and Sta. Barbara. Pangasinan.

She married Laureano Colcol of Aringay, La Union on December 19, 1933 and was blessed with seven children.  She was widowed in 1972 and is presently under the care of his son Lino.

She worked as vegetable vendor after finishing grade seven.  

“She remains to be physically strong, has a very sound mind and opted for a happy disposition in life which she attributes to a healthy lifestyle with prayers and faith in God,” the resolution noted.

“Going to mass and participating in adoration masses has been a part of her daily routine.  She has no serious medical issues as she manages to do things with minimal assistance.”

As an honoree, she will be awarded the privileges provided under Ordinance Numbered 45-2016 as amended and will be among the awardees during the Baguio Charter Day celebration come Sept. 1.

The recognition is in line with the thrust of the city government to recognize the participation of the elderly in the transformation of the City and its citizenry and to award recognition and honor as a gesture of respect to them.

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Despite its foiled bid to acquire the tree park within the Baguio Convention Center reservation from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to maintain it as a mini-forest, the city government continues to look after the trees within the pinestand which were planted and nurtured by Baguio residents.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) had been conducting a continuing inventory of the trees at the park and performing sanitation cutting of those infected by diseases to protect the healthy ones with the concurrence of the property owner GSIS and park overseer Soroptimist International Northern Luzon District.

CEPMO Forester III Villamor Bacullo said upon the request of the Soroptimist group in March, 2017, the city issued a tree-cutting permit for the sanitation cutting of 103 dead and infested pine trees, retrieval of 19 felled trees and pruning of other live trees with broken, cracked or hanging branches.

The mayor agreed to waive the fees due to the urgency of the matter and the CEPMO undertook the cutting of 94 dead trees.

“Right now, the inventory of new dead trees including those that had not been cut is continuing and these will later on be subject of sanitation cutting,” the mayor said.

The mayor said they are still hoping that the GSIS will change its decision not to sell the property to the city government.      

“The City Government is well-aware of the clamor of Baguio residents to preserve this lot as forested.  We thus have no choice but to hearken to the people’s will to retain the property as a forested area with its zoning classification as park and garden to complement the Baguio Convention Center which we earlier acquired from GSIS,” the mayor said.

Former city information officer Ramon Dacawi said the city’s bid to save the forest again drew the support of pupils of the Baguio Pines Family Learning Center who on Monday will submit to Mayor Domogan their personal letters seeking President Duterte’s support to Baguio’s bid to preserve the area.

Dacawi said pupils from the same school also wrote then President Gloria Arroyo back in 2012 opposing Shoemart Development Corporation’s plan to build condotels in the area.

He said he expects long-time residents of the city “who are alarmed over its rapid urbanization and are bound to protest any effort to sell the property for business enterprise.”

“GSIS must remember it did not spend a single centavo in acquiring the lot as it was assigned to it by Presidential signature,” Dacawi quoted one resident as saying.

“The best thing that GSIS can do is to accept the city’s offer to buy back what it used to own before the same was assigned to a government agency by then President Marcos.

“It’s more than enough that the city would pay the lot GSIS acquired for free, an arrangement we’re sure would be supported by GSIS members all over the country who want to help protect Baguio’s remaining pine.” 

Mayor Domogan first made the purchase offer in July, 2016 to then GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara tendering an amount he described as a “fair compensation” for the area considering that the “intended purchase of the lot serves no purpose but to preserve the lot as is, it being the only forested part of the urbanized area to enhance the environment.”

The GSIS accepted the offer but proposed a higher amount prompting the city to make another offer.

In a recent letter to the mayor, however, GSIS president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas again upped the price for two lots covering the convention center and the forest with a total area of about 33,606 from P433,517,400 to P682,201,800 valid until June 21, 2018.

The mayor said that when the city finally decided to accept the new price, they were told that the GSIS was no longer selling the property.

  It can be recalled that in 2012, the area was eyed for development into a condotel and commercial complex by the GSIS and the SM Development Corporation but strong opposition from the public and the city officials prevented the venture from materializing.

The GSIS even filed an administrative case against  past and present city officials over the botched project before the Office of the Ombudsman “for usurpation of legislative powers and violation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices” for passing and implementing Ordinance No. 51 series of 2001 or the Revised Comprehensive Zoning Regulations of the city which was the basis of the city in disapproving the GSIS’ application for a building permit for its condotel project dubbed Baguio Air Residences.

They claimed the disapproval of the project denied the GSIS the chance to augment its actuarial funds and that Ordinance No. 51-2001 which declared the area as a park and garden can not supplant Presidential Decree 396. 

The parties later negotiated and agreed to pursue a land swap deal so the city can acquire the tree park.

The city then offered its titled property along Gibraltar Road but the deal did not push through after the lot was included in those issued Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs) by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).

This prompted the city to consider purchasing the tree park instead.

The tree park is one of the few remaining pinestands in the city.  The status of its ownership has been questioned because of the overlapping coverage of the Original Certificate of Title No. 1.

GSIS however maintained that the lot is covered by Presidential Decree 396 issued by former President Ferdinand Marcos which intended the subject area under the ownership of GSIS to augment its retirement funds and actuarial solvency.