BAGUIO CITY – Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the City Engineering Office (CEO) and City General Services Office (CGSO) to fastrack the survey of the 5-hectare portion of the 92-hectare Baguio Dairy Farm to be ceded to the local government by the agriculture department.
The local chief executive said that the concerned offices of the local government must complete the survey within a reasonable time so the appropriate representations could be done with their counterparts in the agriculture department for the formalization of the ceding of the 5-hectare portion of the government property to the city.
“We have to complete the required survey to determine the portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm to be ceded to the local government for us to prepare the necessary plans on the actual use of the area to address part of the city’s congestion problems,” Domogan stressed.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol approved the request of Mayor Domogan for the DA to cede to the city some 5 hectares of the Baguio Dairy Farm to accommodate the city’s development projects to address some of its priority concerns to decongest the central business district.
Domogan claimed the area to be ceded by the DA to the local government will be situated along Marcos highway and some priority development projects are being considered to be implemented once the documents for the deed of usufruct shall have been finalized by the two parties.
Aside from the possible put up of a south-bound terminal in the area, Domogan explained the city government will study the zoning of the area so that other priority development projects could be accommodated to help the city deliver the necessary services to the residents and tourists alike.
Domogan expressed the gratitude of the people and the officialdom of the city to Secretary Piñol for giving due consideration to the long-overdue request of the city for the agriculture department to cede a portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm to the city so that it could be used for various productive projects that were stalled because of the absence of available lands in the city.
The DA owns the 92-hectare Baguio Dairy Farm property which is supposed to be used for the promotion of dairy production in the city but informal settlers were able to slowly encroach into major portions of the government property.
Domogan claimed one of the purposes of the ceding of the 5-hectare portion of the Dairy Farm to the local government is to remove the informal settlers who encroached in strategic portions of the property.
Another issue that the DA and the local government has to contend with is the existence of an ancestral claim over the property that has triggered the influx of informal settlers in various portions of the property.
By Dexter A. See
