The city is not yet inclined to issue the coveted Original Proponent Status (OPS) to the lone proponent of the proposed establishment of an integrated terminal along Marcos Highway, particularly within a portion of the 10-hectare property ceded by the agriculture department to the local government.
City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña stated that as per the latest meeting of the city’s Public Private Partnership for the People–Selection Committee (P4-SC), there were some issues raised on some aspects of the unsolicited proposal, especially on the financial aspect, thus, the members decided not to issue the required OPS to the proponent until the issues raised are clarified and addressed.
The proposed integrated terminal will be the city’s terminal for south-bound buses and other public utility vehicles (PUVs) as one of the big-ticket projects of the city government being offered for the public-private partnership pursuant to the city’s P4 ordinance.
Previously, city officials benchmarked the proposed integrated terminal project at the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITEX) to ascertain whether the same will be feasible in the city.
The city administrator claimed that the members of the P4-SC will be awaiting the compliance of Megawide, the lone proponent for the project, on their supplemental submissions and additional justifications on the issues earlier raised, before the body will deliberate on whether or not to pursue the issuance of the OPS to the proponent so that the process could proceed to the succeeding stages as per the P4 ordinance.
Aside from the proposed integrated terminal in a portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm property, the local government also plans to put up its modern abattoir near the same apart from the existing temporary waste transfer station.
The planned integrated terminal will be the relocation site for the south-bound buses that are using Gov. Pack Road as their temporary terminal to help in decongesting the same from the daily monstrous traffic.
According to him, the local government is striving to pursue the implementation of the proposed big-ticket projects to help build a better Baguio.
He emphasized that the local government sees the realization of the proposed integrated terminal as part of the solution in decongesting some of the city’s major roads of the daily monstrous traffic and to ensure there will be available spaces right in the central business district that could be used for other purposes for the mobility requirements of the increasing population.
The proposal to put up a south-bound terminal along Marcos highway was part of the recommendations of the European urban planners that studied the growth and development of the city where the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) growth area was conceptualized to help decongest the city from over development.
