Baguio watersheds to be protected from speculators

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Vast tracts of forested land identified as protected zone in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) of the city need to be protected from lot speculators.

During the management committee (Mancom) meeting presided over by Mayor Benjamin Magalong Sept. 17, city planning and development coordinator Evelyn Cayat said the public lands covered with pine trees have larger aggregate area than the city’s parks.

Cayat said these were designated as protected forest as a safeguard. 

She assured that the tracts of land have not been titled as the titling procedure would require that documents pass through her office for the issuance of the mandatory clearance.

She added that the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had been properly informed of the existence and situation of these protected zones being part of the CLUP documents furnished the agency and it is assumed that the agency will also work for their protection.

The inventory will be turned over to the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) for adoption of measures to protect the land from encroachers.

CEPMO Assistant Department Head Rhenan Diwas said that as part of their new programs, they plan to clear forest reservations of shrubs and transform them into picnic or hiking spots to make them accessible to people in the tradition of the Camp John Hay forest reserve.

This is one way of protecting the reservations from lot speculators as people visibility will increase in these usually forlorn and inaccessible sites.

“With this program, we hope that the people’s constant presence in these can be a deterrent against squatters or the people themselves can help us guard them by reporting squatting incidents,” Diwas said.  

He said they have scheduled massive clearing activities to start at the Pine Trees of the World section and later at the Forbes Park and other reservations.

“The project may be ambitious but doable,” Diwas said.

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This, as the city government is set on a program for regreening, beautification and development of new parks and center islands and protection of forest reservations.

These are some of the revitalized programs in the pipeline of the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) as bared by newly installed Asst. CEPMO Officer lawyer Rhenan Diwas.

Diwas who was tasked by Mayor Benjamin Magalong as the city’s “champion” for the revitalization of the environment told the Management Committee (ManCom) meeting last Sept. 17 that the 200 CEPMO personnel with their collective skills are prepared to rev up their environmental renewal programs anchored on “aggressive regreening and beautification movement” in the coming months.

He said that apart from the tree-planting activities being coordinated with the various schools and groups at the various watersheds and forest reservations, the CEPMO’s plan includes the regreening campaigns in the barangays.

For this year, he said the office has programmed activities for Burnham Park-Legarda, Bayan Park East, Bayan Park Village and Salud Mitra Barangays while succeeding ones will be planned for the other villages in the coming years.

 “Our aim is to plant not only pine trees but also trees and plants of various species in a more organized way and not just indiscriminately,” Diwas said.

He said a champion team which he will head with City Tourism Officer Aloysius Mapalo will oversee the regreening and beautification program and will also involve the barangay officials and the Sangguniang Kabataan officials.

Another plan, he said, will be the de-shrubbing of feasible areas in forest reservations for conversion into and maintenance as picnic or hiking sites.

This way, people will be able to access these areas for recreation purposes and their visibility can serve as deterrent against lot speculators, Diwas said.

Also lined up are the creation of new parks mostly eco-parks, promotion and improvement of existing but unknown parks like the Bayan Park in Aurora Hill and improvement of existing parks and center islands.

He said eco-parks like bamboo parks and bonsai parks will be put up in identified sites while the less popular parks will be spruced up and given distinct features that will serve as come-ons for tourists and residents to come and rediscover them.

The office will adopt a uniform concept for center islands while master development plans will be made to improve the existing parks particularly the Botanical Garden to maintain its bloom year-round in keeping with its name.

Mayor Magalong expressed support to the plan along with the development of the Mines View Park and the Tree Park near the Baguio Convention Center in cooperation with the Government Service Insurance Service (GSIS) for which the City Buildings and Architecture Office had drafted conceptual plans with programs of work for implementation soon.