Baguio illegal structures up for demolition: building exec

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Structures found to be built within the prohibited areas in the city will be subjected to demolition only upon exhaustion of the due process of the law.

City Building Official engineer Nazita Banez said sustaining this process and carrying this over to the next administration especially that Mayor-elect Benjamin Magalong also advocated for fair treatment of law violators through the observance of the normal judicial system.

During the briefing with the incoming mayor and his staff members, Banez reported that a total of 168 structures had been discovered to be built within the prohibited zones.

Sixty four were built on safeguarded lands, 56 within creek easement, 19 on road right-of-ways while 29 were founded to have converted their parking areas into other uses.

The report will be submitted to concerned department for proper action.

The discovery was made in the course of the City Building and Architecture Office’s conduct of the census of buildings which as of May covered 43 of the city’s 128 barangays and listed a total of 9,371 structures.

More violators are expected to be uncovered as the CBAO continues the census project which aims to establish a database inventory-information of all buildings and structures in the entire city by the end of 2020.

Outgoing Mayor Domogan had been discouraging residents from building their houses and structures on sinkhole and landslide-prone sites and RROWs. He said those whose buildings sit on these zones should be wary of the condition of their lots and should undertake remedial measures or vacate the place especially during the typhoon season.

The census is the first inventory project to be done in the city since the creation of CBAO in 2004.

It aims to establish a data base of all buildings in the city, their ownership, location and compliance to the National Building Code of the Philippines and other laws including Presidential Decree 17 particularly the provision “prohibiting encroachments/usurpations of any portion of road right-of-way” and Presidential Decree 296 “Directing all persons, national or juridical to renounce possession and move out of portions of rivers, creeks, esteros, drainage channels and other similar waterways encroached upon by them…”

Banez earlier assured residents that structures found in violation of the laws will not be demolished outright as these matters need to first undergo a process.

She said if ever, summary demolition will only apply to structures in the process of construction and not covered by permits especially those within the hazardous and non-buildable areas such as steep slopes, road right-of-ways, waterways and parks.

Banez said they resolved to implement this strictly in the aftermath of typhoon Ompong in September last year after learning that most of the structures affected by the typhoon were not covered by building permits and built along high risk areas.