BAGUIO CITY – Rep. Mauricio G. Domogan underscored the importance of correcting the legal infirmities of Republic Act (RA) 11689 or the Revised Baguio City Charter and strengthen some of its provisions that will contribute in spurring the city’s growth and development in the future.
In his inaugural speech after taking his oath of office as the city’s Representative to the House for the 20th Congress, Domgan said that he will author a bill that will be filed within his first 100 day in office that will amend certain provisions of the revised city charter, correct its legal infirmities and enhance the same to the greater advantage of the city.
He claimed that it is very important to include in the proposed amendments to the revised city charter the technical description of the city which will not only establish its metes and bounds but also put an end to the long standing boundary dispute between Baguio and Tuba where the same had already been agreed upon by Tuba municipal officials and Benguet provincial officials.
Domogan gave credit to former Rep. Mark Go for introducing the law revising the city charter and that he had all his good intentions related to it but there is also a need to correct the legal infirmities that had been included inadvertently.
The newly installed congressman claimed that the provision mandating the Secretary of the Sangguiang Panlungsod to submit all approved resolutions and ordinances to the Benguet provincial board for ratification will be scrapped as the same is only applicable to component cities and not in the case of highly urbanized cities like Baguio because it is governed by its own charter.
According to him, the townsite sales application (TSA) as a mode of disposal of alienable and disposable lands should already be replaced by the much simpler miscellaneous sales application (MsA) to avoid possible displacement of qualified homelot applicants who had been occupying said lands for a long period of time.
Under the TSA mode, he pointed out that there is a big possibility that moneyed individuals will surely outbid the less fortunate residents who had been occupying alienable and disposable lands through the prescribed bidding process which is unfair to those who had been in possession of their landholdings for a long period of time.
Domogan claimed that under the MSA mode, qualified homelot applicants will be directly awarded with the lands that they have occupied for a certain period of time provided that they will pay the prescribed amount that will be fixed by the law. If there will be disputes, the bidding will be confined to those involved in the dispute to ensure that the qualified ones will be awarded the said properties.
Another proposed amendment to the revised city charter is the inclusion of a provision that will mandate the segregation of some 13 barangays in the Camp John hay watershed reservation pursuant to Resolution No. 362, series of 1994 that contained the 19 conditions imposed by the local government for the development of the former American aviation base in the city. By Dexter A. See
