BAGUIO CITY – Officials of the Sobrepeña-owned Camp John Hay |Development Corporation (CJHDevCo) expressed its willingness to appear in any future meetings to be scheduled by the city council to clarify matters in relation to the state of the 247-hectare John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ) once the developer will turnover the same to the State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) among other related issues.
Alfredo Yñiguez, CJHDevCo executive vice president, cited it is not true that CJHDevCo refused to appear during the scheduled June 16 supposed special council meeting which was later re-scheduled to a later date to allow all concerned parties to be able to synchronize their respective schedules for the said purpose.
Earlier, the council warned BCDA, its subsidiary, John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) and CJHDevCo officials that it might be constrained to declare them ‘persona non grata’ once they refuse to appear during the upcoming special session to be scheduled in accordance with their availability so that there will be no reasons for them to claim that they have prior engagements of equal importance.
“In fact, three CJHDevCo representatives were prepared to attend the hearing or special session with the city council and we even sent up two of our lawyers from Manila to attend, including lawyer and former city councillor Federico J. Mandapat, Jr. to represent the corporation,” Yñiguezstressed.
The council was forced to re-schedule to a later date the special session on issues in relation to Camp John Hay (CJH) after BCDA and JHMC officials informed the local legislative body that they cannot attend the meeting last June 16 because of their prior engagements of equal importance.
The council was supposed to inquire from BCDA and JHMC officials the status of the city’s share from the lease rentals of the special economic zone, the forced eviction of the Country Club Village Elementary School from its original site, the compliance of the corporation to the 19 conditions imposed by the city government for the development of the former American military base.
On the other hand, the council was supposed to ask CJHDevCo officials on the over 500 workers that are on the verge of being displaced once the BCDA will takeover the leased area, the state of the improvements and supposed new projects among other related issues that will arise during the course of deliberations.
Other invited resource persons to the special council session that will be scheduled in the future were the 13 punong barangays of the barangays that are within the 686-hectare Camp John Hay forest reservation that were supposed to be subjected to segregation pursuant to the 19 conditions enshrined under Resolution 362, series of 1994 passed by the city council as part of the city government’s consent in the development of the former air station.
Mr. Francis Cesar Bringas, Superintendent of the Division of City Schools under the Department of Education, was also invited to attend the special session in the future to shed light on the circumstances on the upcoming eviction of the Country Club Village Elementary School from its present site to the basketball court of the said barangay among other issues related thereto. By Dextter A. See
