Issue raised in update of city land use plan

The City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) is being urged to consider all public lands identified in 1989 for public purposes in updating the Baguio City Comprehensive Land Use Plan. 

Councilor Isabelo Cosalan Jr. made the request as he informed that the 2002-2008 city comprehensive land use plan is up for revision and that “overlapping” of land titles should be addressed. 

This developed even as Cosalan together with councilors Fred Bagbagen and Betty Lourdes Tabanda, in a separate resolution, also asked the Office of the Solicitor General to investigate the supposed overlapping of properties in Baguio under Original Certificate of Title (OCT) 1. 

Cosalan said that specifying parcels of land by the CPDO for city, barangay, and institutional purposes in the comprehensive land use plan would be helpful in averting unscrupulous individuals to allocate these lands for private use. 

The request to the CPDO was made after the councilor also noted that there are several parcels of public land identified for city or barangay needs already occupied by infrastructures. 

In a related move, the resolution penned by the three councilors stated that it was found out in the survey of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the City Assessors Office that the titles issued to SM Baguio, Government Service Insurance System, heirs of Carantes, and others have alle-gedly overlapped with OCT 1. 

The alleged overlapping of land titles covered by OCT 1 was brought to the fore in wake of the city council inquiry on the planned construction of buildings within a forested area near the Baguio Convention Center.