By Jessa Mardy Samidan
BAGUIO
CITY -- The city government is reviewing the legality of private and government
agencies utilizing spaces within the Athletic Bowl premises at Burnham Park as
part of Mayor Benjamin Magalong’s program to recover government properties.
A dialogue was held August 7, 2019 led by
City Administrator Bonifacio Dela Peña with the representatives of the
Philippine Army Reserve Command – 14th Regional Community Defense Group
(Arescom), Baguio Tennis Club, RNR Sanitary Services and two canteen operators
within the sports compound.
Dela Peña said the city plans to develop
a multi-level indoor sports facility within the area where these establishments
are located which seemed to be left without proper monitoring for decades.
“We are conducting this dialogue for
transparency because offices in the city government seemed to have no idea who
is supposed to manage and monitor these establishments,” Dela Peña said.
Per city council records, the Baguio
Tennis Club has been utilizing the tennis courts at Burnham Park since 1976
based on Resolution No.106 during the term of Mayor Luis Lardizabal and was
amended by Resolution No.24 in 1980 under Mayor Ernesto Bueno. Under the said
resolutions, the Baguio Tennis Club was authorized to manage, operate and
improve the four clay/shell tennis courts for two years only and to be devoted
for public use.
The 39 years old resolution also provides
that fees collected from non-registered tennis players utilizing the facility
shall be deposited to a trust fund of the city however, Dela Peña found that
not a single centavo has been deposited to the city coffers.
City Sports Development Officer Gaudencio
Gonzales also reported illegal activities being undertaken at the Baguio Tennis
Club such as gambling, smoking, drinking, videoke and illegal parking. He also
reported Baguio tennis Club members are given priority for the use of the
tennis courts over Baguio athletes and coaches which is in violation of
Resolution No. 24-80.
For the Arescom, a Memorandum of
Agreement executed by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS)
way back 1993 authorized the use of the space in Athletic Bowl as a regional
military headquarters particularly for the training of reservists.
Atty. Isagani Liporada of the City Legal
Office opined that DECS does not own the land where the Arescom headquarters
was built and thereby the MOA does not have a legal basis.
Meantime, Gonzales reported that Arescom
has turned the facility into its private lodging and even constructed extension
of barracks without approval from the City Buildings and Architectures Office.
The RNR Sanitary Services was likewise
complained for constructing an exclusive fence for the parking and repair of
its water delivery trucks much to the inconvenience of the public.
Dela Peña advised these establishments
including the two canteens operating within the Athletic Bowl to be ready to
vacate the area once the city pursues its development plans for indoor sports
facility.
“We are gathering all the data and
reviewing the legal personality of establishments operating within the Athletic
Bowl before we craft the technical design for the indoor sports facility but I
am not promising that you (concessionaires) will be given a space because the
mayor wanted to recover what the city rightfully owns,” Dela Peña said.
In the meantime, Dela Peña said the
operation of the establishments will be in a status quo pending the preparation
of technical plans for the indoor sports facility.
As early as 2016, the city government
lobbied for the construction of a multi-level indoor sports facility to house a
state-of-the-art tennis court, basketball and volleyball courts among others
with Php60 million funding from the Department of Public Works and Highways but
engineering and technical design preparation has overtaken the plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment