The first session of the city council for 2020 last Monday was a good way to start the year with 20 matters acted upon.
In implementing its “strengthening road improvement project,” the council, through Resolution 1, s. 2020 has requested the Department of Public Works and Highways-Baguio City District Engineering Office to prioritize roads linking tourist destinations in Baguio City, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay (BLISTT).
The resolution wants a road network for the BLISST to make travel to the different tourist destinations faster, safer, and more accessible.
The city council’s desire for strong road linkages is in consonance with the city’s policy of promoting tourism where everyone benefits from tourism and its advocacy for tourism dispersal under an equitably shared partnership among BLISTT members.
In Resolution 9, the City of Baguio sends its condolences to the family of the late Nestor B. Fongwan Sr., congressman of the province of Benguet, who passed away last Dec. 18 at the age of 68.
A public servant for three decades, Fongwan began his career as an employee of the Benguet Provincial Auditor’s Office, then served as councilor of La Trinidad, Benguet from 1998 to 1992.
He became the town’s vice mayor from 1992 to 1995 and was appointed acting mayor from October 1994 to 1995. He continued public service as mayor from 1998 to 2001 and 2004 to 2007 and thereafter became the governor of Benguet from 2007 to 2016. He was elected congressman in the last local elections and served as such until his demise.
“Nestor Fongwan is referred to as the ‘Action Man’ for his relentless service and hands-on leadership, responding to calamities, disasters, and events where he is needed. Under his watch as governor, Benguet was awarded the Seal of Good Local Governance by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the prize for which paved the way for the establishment and construction of a sports center with an 8,000-capacity gym,” reads the resolution.
The late congressman was the author of significant bills for the agriculture sector and the upgrading of facilities of the Benguet General Hospital. He also joined Cordillera representatives in filing a bill seeking for the establishment of an autonomous region in the Cordillera.
In Resolution 2, s. 2020, private and public educational institutions offering basic education in the City of Baguio were urged to strictly observe nondiscrimination of persons with disability.
The request is an adopted proposal of Scout-official-for-a-day Franz Raymond, which is in line with Section 7, Chapter 1, Rule 5 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Magna Carta for Persons with Disability, as amended, prohibiting public ridicule, which is defined as “an act of making fun or contemptuous imitating or making mockery of persons with disability whether in writing, in words, or in action due to their impairments.”
Sec. 8, Chapter 2 of the same law prohibits vilification or the utterance of slanderous and abusive statements against a PWD such as, but not limited to, calling a person by his disability in public which results to humiliation and using the disability of a person as an example in a manner that is embarrassing and humiliating to the dignity of PWDs.
The resolution wants these institutions to be consistent with the objectives and main purpose of schools as a venue primarily for learning skills, knowledge, values and morals for character and personality development of a person, a place where the rights are learned and applied based on norms, local laws and specifically the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which prohibits discrimination.
It stressed further that since Baguio is known as the educational center of the north, students at their young age should be taught to respect the rights of PWDs.
May 16, 2024
