THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is not giving up on its bid of developing the vacant lot beside the Baguio Convention Center, through a joint venture agreement with SM Investments Corporation (SMIC).

This even as the City Planning and Development Office denied SMIC’s application for zoning clearance, a requisite before a building permit can be issued.

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The 14,430 square meter lot is classified as a park and garden under the Zoning Ordinance.

This resulted in the non-construction of the Baguio Air Residences, a condotel, which would have been built by SMIC. Details of the joint venture agreement remain under wraps.

Plans of building a high-rise in the area have also generated opposition from various groups.

But recently, GSIS counsels filed for a declaratory relief on which the court would declare the Zoning Ordinance void from the beginning and for being ultra vires or something beyond the legal capacity of a person, company, or other legal entity.
 
The petition also asked the court to order the City Government to issue all permits necessary for the area’s development, and should the court find the questioned section of the ordinance to be valid, a corresponding judicial construction be rendered, which would, in effect, allow them to develop their property.

For the City Government, Vice Mayor Daniel Fariñas said the move of the GSIS is a welcome development as this would put to rest the debate on whether to allow development of the area or not.

Respondents to the petition are Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., Fariñas, the City Council, and planning officer Arturo Orig.

GSIS said the ordinance is repugnant to the Constitution because it has stripped them of the right to use its property into something economically viable.

The GSIS added that it is “unlawful taking” for the City Government to prevent development it wishes to undertake within its property, without compensation.

“What the National Government expressly conveyed, the City Council may not take away by restricting the use thereof in such a manner which would render the property useless for GSIS,” it stated.

It further said allowing SMIC to construct a building would have augmented funds of the GSIS.

The GSIS also argued the condotel does not contravene the ordinance for garden and water features will be included in the project’s landscape amenities.

The proposed project encourages bringing in of fresh investments to Baguio.

In response, Fariñas said the GSIS should have consulted the people of Baguio first before signing the agreement.

“We cannot be compelled if it is not in accordance with existing laws,” he said, adding that before GSIS and SMIC signed an agreement, the Zoning Ordinance has long been in existence.

“We hope we are not wrong with our interpretation,” he said, referring to the GSIS’s recent issuance of a notice to vacate the Baguio Convention Center.

Fariñas intimated this could be one way to pressure the City Government to allow the construction of the condotel.