BAGUIO CITY – The John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC), a subsidiary of the State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), wants a total closure of all the issues affecting the smooth business operations and the conversion of the former American rest and recreation center into a world-class tourism facility that will contribute in improving the state of the local tourism industry.
JHMC vice president and chief operating officer Jane Theresa G. Tabalingcos admitted that the present BCDA and JHMC is steadfast in putting a permanent closure to all the existing issues and concerns that have been left out by the previous administrations to allow the uninterrupted business operations inside the declared John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ) and establish a harmonious working relationship between the camp officials and personnel and the people living in the communities around the facility.
“We want to co-exist with the people living in the communities surrounding the camp that is why we are doing a non-stop coordination with our partners in the communities around the camp for us to listen and address their concerns,” Tabalingcos stressed.
However, the JHMC official refused to issue a statement on the present stand of the BCDA and the JHMC on the long-overdue segregation of the 14 barangays within the 686-hectare Camp John hay (CJH) watershed reservation, saying that the matter will be properly addressed by higher authorities although management is inclined to put a close to all issues and concerns confronting the management and operation of the corporation.
According to her, part of the JHMC’s long-term development plan which will be presented to concerned stakeholders before the end of the year will be how the State corporation will implement the desire of the present administration to put a closure on all the issues affecting its sustainable operation over the past two decades.
Earlier, the local government handed down Resolution No. 362, series of 1994 that contained the 19 conditions imposed by the city for the eventual development of CJH wherein one of the conditions was for the BCDA and JHMC to facilitate the eventual segregation of the 14 barangays within the CJH reservation so that the lands in the said areas will be declared as alienable and disposable for subsequent award to existing qualified homelot applicants.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan disclosed that the local government in coordination with the barangay officials of the 14 barangays will be making a last-ditch effort to meet with BCDA and JHMC officials in the coming weeks to be appraised on the real position of the State corporations on the long overdue conditionality to allow the city to firm up its next action on the matter once the results of the proposed meeting will not gain positive feedback from the concerned officers.
Concerned barangay officials raised an uproar over the seemingly snail-paced action of the present administration of the BCDA and JHMC on their earlier commitment to facilitate the eventual segregation of the 14 barangays from the CJH forest reservation to allow the distribution of the lands to the deserving qualified homelot applicants for them to own their properties that they have occupied for decades now.
By HENT