City officials backed the convening of a pre-Proclamation Committee to tackle issues on the possible segregation or amendment of Proclamation No. 312, particularly on the area actually occupied by settlers at Sto. Niño-Slaughterhouse barangay.
Under Resolution No. 437 signed by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, the pre-Proclamation Committee shall be composed of representatives from the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the city government through the City Planning and Development Office and the Committee on Urban Planning, Lands and Housing of the city council.
Earlier, City Planning and Development Coordinator Donna Tabangin suggested that a pre-Proclamation Committee shall be convened to provide comments and recommendations to the request of the residents living within the government property for the segregation of the occupied areas and for the same to be awarded to them.
On April 23, 1930, Proclamation No. 312 was issued reserving as a sanitary camp and livestock yard the area known as the Slaughterhouse Compound and placing the same area under the administration of the City of Baguio although the same is owned by the Department of Health.
However, on January 31, 1974, Proclamation No. 1228 delineated some portion of the land covered by Proclamation No. 312 for residential purposes and a school site.
See more stories:
On August 3, 2020, representatives of the barangay cooperative and barangay officials presented to the City Council their intention to introduce re-development on the area that they have reportedly inhabited and occupied.
Tabangin informed city councilors that the convening of the pre-Proclamation Committee to tackle the issues on the said matter and make the appropriate recommendations to amend the aforesaid Proclamation is the initial step that must be undertaken to pave the way for the possible revision or amendment of the occupied areas.
The council required the barangay cooperative to submit to the proposed pre-Proclamation Committee their overall re-development plan for areas they occupied areas for evaluation and assessment and allow the committee to make the appropriate recommendations on future steps to be undertaken for the eventual segregation of the occupied areas to be awarded to the qualified homelot applicants or those that are in possession.
At the same time, the council prohibited the Sto Niño Barangay Housing Cooperative from recruiting new members and only those existing members and residents of the said barangay shall remain as members until such time that the development of the government property shall have been ascertained or determined by the concerned authorities.
The barangay previously requested the council to grant the appropriate development permit and all appurtenant permission and license to proceed with the implementation of the proposed re-development plan of the occupied areas of the government property.
The cooperative also requested the city’s support to the filing of a proposed bill in Congress with the end view of having a law transferring a portion of the public domain in the city’s townsite for the purpose of the re-development of the property.
By Dexter A. See
You might also like:
