March 29, 2024

The city council through Resolution 215, s. 2023 has tasked the City Engineering Office to install railings, wire mesh, or other appropriate material on the sides of overpasses to prevent incidents such as the one involving a young girl who, on March 18 fell to death from an overpass along Magsaysay Avenue.
The initiative is in accordance with the principles and policies of the State to protect life, liberty, and property as essential for the enjoyment by all the people of the blessings of democracy. It is also complying the Local Government Code’s mandate for all local government units to promote the general welfare of its constituents.
In Resolution 207, s. 2023, the city council urged the City Planning and Development Office to convene a monitoring team created under Ordinance 19, s. 2009 or “The Subdivision and Development Monitoring Ordinance,” which provides for the guidelines in monitoring subdivisions and other real estate development in Baguio.
The request is to clarify issues and concerns regarding the requirements and procedures in granting approval of application for subdivision or partition of lots in Baguio which are not covered by Ordinance 19.
The scope or coverage of the ordinance is on all subdivisions, constructions and real estate developments intended for sale or for commercial purposes that require the issuance of Preliminary Approval and Locational Clearance (PALC), development permit and/or final approval of subdivision.
Functions of the team as provided in Section 4(a) of the ordinance is to conduct periodic inspection of all subdivisions/constructions to which the city has issued PALC, development permit and/or final approval of subdivision. Thus, the term “subdivision” as used in the ordinance is obviously referring to subdivision projects or areas of subdivided lots where developments or constructions are being undertaken, or with homes for sale that must be regularly inspected by the team to ensure compliance of the developers and contractors to laws like Zoning Ordinance, including the nature and progress of land development projects as approved by the Housing Land Use and Regulatory Board, as well as housing construction to ensure their faithfulness to the approved plan and specification thereof, and imposition of measures to enforce compliance.
The resolution added that since the word “subdivision” as used in the ordinance is not clearly defined whether referring to “a process of dividing a lot into two or more pieces” or “an area of subdivided lots where developments or projects are being undertaken, or with homes for sale or commercial purposes,” the CPDO as the chair and lead office of the monitoring committee should provide a simple flow chart on the requirements and processes regarding applications for subdivision of lots not covered by the ordinance.
The CPDO and the monitoring team were also tasked to clarify that not all applications for subdivision is covered by the ordinance.
In its previous session, the council approved the realignment of P20 million from the project, “sidewalk recovery and improvement at Upper P. Burgos going to Sto. Niño Hospital to junction Magsaysay” to a project, “Phase 2 of road right-of-way and sidewalk recovery at North Sto. Tomas Road”.
The realignment was due to the opposition of homeowners of Padre Burgos and their suggestion to use the fund to other programs as the road was already converted from barangay to national road on Feb. 22, 2000. Also, P20M is not sufficient to complete the project on both sides of P. Burgos St.
In Resolution 204, s. 2023, the council urged Rep. Marquez Go to conduct public consultations on the latest version of the autonomy bill and the proposed amendments to the revised charter of Baguio, if any.
The resolution states that with legislations such as the autonomy bill, constitutional amendments, the revised charter, and the Metropolitan Baguio City, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay Development Authority, it is just and proper that the Baguio citizenry should be informed and be part in crafting said legislations, otherwise for lack of consultation and information, they might reject the law one way or another.
“Considering that these legislative measures will have significant implications on the lives and property rights of citizens and the City of Baguio, a public consultation should be an important aspect of democratic governance allowing citizens to voice their opinions and concerns about matters that will affect them, consultation should be made part of national and local legislation,” added the resolution.
The resolution also recommended the participants’ observation in the consultation held last Feb. 28 at the Baguio Cultural and Convention Center that the revised charter of Baguio could have included the merger of barangays.