Around 1,200 property owners in the city have been found encroaching road rights-of-way (RROW).
The finding was reported based on the ongoing RROW recovery program of the city government that has so far mapped an estimated 40 percent of the Baguio’s 128 barangays.
In a media forum on April 26, Engr. Januario Borillo, chief of the City Engineering Office’s Traffic and Transportation Management Division, said more or less 37,000 square meters of RROW have been encroached at present.
He said his office, in coordination with the City Treasury Office (CTO), plans to do a mapping project that would specify individual owners whose structures have occupied RROWs.
The number of square meters of RROW these structures have occupied will then be determined and the appropriate rent may be charged the erring lot owners, Borillo said.
“These rentals could be a source of additional revenue for the city government that will be allocated to support its ongoing RROW recovery program, which has a limited budget,” he said.
Borillo added a problem possibly faced by some of those applying for building permits is that they may not know that their structures have already encroached on RROW.
“In this matter, our office can help them by mapping the barangays where these owners can see whether their structures have gone out of their property lines or not. This is where the RROW recovery program can help them,” he said.
The RROW recovery program primarily aims to help ease the city’s traffic situation along major thoroughfares and ensure these are compliant to the standard width. – Gaby B. Keith
