BAGUIO CITY – The Metropolitan BLISTT Development Authority (MBLISTTDA) is officially created through Republic Act No. 11932 on July 30, 2022. House Bill 9215 creating the MBLISTTDA was endorsed to the Office of the President last June 29 and lapsed into law 30 days later. HB 9215 was authored by Baguio City Congressman Mark Go and supported by the BLISTT governing and development councils through council resolutions. BLISTT stands for Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay.
The law imbues the BLISTT inter-local cooperation with the capacity to implement high-impact BLISTT-wide projects and consolidate inter-local efforts to improve service delivery in the BLISTT. The MBLISTTDA Council composed of the local chief executives of the BLISTT and the Province of Benguet will be the governing board and policy-making body of the development authority. They will select a Chairperson among themselves that shall preside over the meetings and will nominate candidates for MBLISTTDA Administrator that the President will appoint. The MBLISTTDA Administrator will serve a six-year term. Additionally, the Administrator and the Council will nominate to the President three senior manager positions for Operations, Planning, and Finance & Administration.
Other non-voting members of the council include the Vice Mayors of the BLISTT, and representatives from NEDA, DOTr, DPWH, DOT, DICT, DBM, DHSUD, NCIP, DTI, DA, DENR, DOST, CHED, PNP and 2 additional representatives from the private sector as appointed by the council.
The MBLISTTDA will lead BLISTT area development planning and facilitate funding and implementation of BLISTT projects towards coordinated management of public safety and order, tourism, transport, solid waste, flood control and sewerage, water resource, health, and sanitation. The MBLISTTDA shall also foster institutional linkages in the public and private institutions as well as coordinate with the Department of Finance and NEDA to interface with foreign assistance, grants, support, and other programs and projects.
The current Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) institutional set-up is challenged with the lack of human and financial resources to operate effectively. The current set-up was implemented through a memorandum of agreement dated 17 January 2014. NEDA-CAR has been acting as the interim technical secretariat of the BLISTT Governing and Development Councils.
Mayor Magalong, the current BLISTT Governing Council Chairperson, called for a meeting for the crafting of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) and plan out the transition from the current set-up to the MBLISTTDA set-up under the administrative supervision of the Office of the President, as specified in RA No. 11932.