Councilors back bills naming Burnham as national park

Monday, May 23, 2011

THE Baguio City Council recently endorsed for approval of Congress Representative Bernardo Vergara's proposed bills that seek the declaration of Burnham as a national park.

House Bill 1615 and 2252 aim to get financial support from the National Government for the maintenance of the 31-hectare park, as the City Government is having difficulty in addressing the park's annual maintenance and operations given the supposed Philippine Tourism Authority's budgetary reductions.

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A portion of Vergara's proposal states, "Despite applying proper management procedures, the City Government found it burdensome to administer the park, much more fund development initiatives."

The lawmaker said regular collections from the park are not enough "even for minimal maintenance needs."

"Subsequent presidential policies enunciated in executive orders issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have yielded insubstantial assistance to make the park a financially viable and environmentally nurtured to sustain its ecological tourism and importance to Baguio," he said.

But even with the request for support from the National Government, city officials emphasized that management should still be with the local government.

Vergara said the remedy is to declare Burnham as a national park so that funds for maintenance, operation, development, upgrade or creation of existing facilities could be provided.

"This will ensure proper management and development of the park as a world class, competitive tourism center benefitting the nation's summer capital," he said.

Vergara is proposing allocation of P30 million as annual maintenance budget.

The budget will be charged against annual budget of the Department of Tourism under the tourism infrastructure and enterprise zone authority or its successor agency, and included as an itemized expenditure authorized in the general appropriations act.

The management of Burnham was recently transferred from the National Parks Development Council to the City Government.