BAGUIO CITY – Former Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan underscored that if there is a national figure who has to be recognized by the city government for the timely support and intervention to help address the pressing problems of the city in the previous years, it should be former Agriculture Secretary Manny Pin֮ol.
He narrated that when a La Trinidad-based court ordered the closure of the waste transfer station of the former hauler of the city’s residual waste in Longlong, Puguis because of environmental issues, it was Secretary Pin֮ol who helped the city establish the temporary waste transfer station within a 5,000-square meter portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm upon the recommendation of previous officials of the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) headed by former regional director Reynaldo Digamo.
Further, Domogan claimed that because the city government was in need of additional land area to as site for the implementation of high-impact development projects to contribute to efforts in addressing the city’s major concerns, he made representations with Secretary Pin֮ol for the identification of portions of the agency’s property at the Baguio Dairy farm that could be ceded to the city.
He stipulated that luckily, the former agriculture official agreed to cede to the local government more or less 8.1 hectares within the said property to be used by the city for vital development projects.
Subsequently, DA represented by Secretary Pin֮ol and former Mayor Domogan entered into a deed of usufruct to formally cede the said portion of the Baguio Dairy farm to the city government.
According to him, former Secretary Pin֮ol’s timely interventions on the earlier requests of the local government paved the way for the immediate establishment of the city’s temporary waste transfer station with strict supervision from the EMB-CAR that averted the occurrence of a garbage crisis and provided better opportunities for the city to plan out the implementation of high-impact development projects in the ceded area that included a south-bound terminal, among others.
At the end of his second 3-term stint as the city’s city’s chief executive, Domogan was able to lay the ground work for the present administration to pursue the desired development of the ceded property, aside from the additional land area that was acquired with the concurrence of incumbent Agriculture Secretary William Dar, but the significant contribution of Secretary Pin֮ol has to be acknowledged because without him, the city could not have been able to effectively and efficiently address its solid waste disposal problems that transpired due to a court ruling that prevented the private hauler from continuously using a private property as its waste transfer station.
DA owns the 94-hectare Baguio Dairy Farm property primarily for the breeding of animals and other important research and development projects that will be undertaken to advance the greater interest of the agriculture sector in the Cordillera and Northern Luzon.
