BAGUIO City Mayor Mauricio Domogan said efforts to acquire the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Tree Park have been done but to no avail.
“We do not know the stand of the GSIS,” Domogan said adding the area is owned by the national government agency and the city has no hold over the patch of land.
But Domogan assured the public that the City Government will manifest its protest if it is sold and turned into a commercial area.
Early in the year, Domogan sent a letter to GSIS expressing its intent to buy the lot beside the Baguio Convention Center.
Originally, negotiations started when GSIS informed the city on 2017 that the area was up for sale for P433 million which the city in turn, bargained for P350 million.
However, instead of lowering the price, the GSIS upped the tag for the lot to P670 million, which the city cannot afford to purchase.
This week, clamor to preserve the area was rekindled when the University of the Philippines Baguio College of Social Sciences presented two studies showing the current state of the 1.4-hectare tree park.
UP Baguio Professor Zenaida Baoanan said the tree park is home to 544 pine trees and 21 Agoho trees, however, a reduction was noted from 800 pine trees in 2012.
Aside from pine trees, 49 plants were documented with 35 invertebrate species, majority are insects and 24 bird species spotted in the tree park.
The forest park act as microclimate mitigator, and trees trap carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere adding at least 559,719 kilograms of carbon dioxide can be trapped by the 544 pine trees within the park.
The study revealed more than 50 percent of trees are in bad state and infested with fungal infection as the area is being utilized as a bathroom and garbage dump.
Domogan since appealed to the public not to dump garbage in the tree park as well as use it as a makeshift bathroom.
The tree park is beside the Baguio Convention Center which was also acquired from the GSIS through the city’s accumulated share from the lease of the 247-hectare John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ) held by the state owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) in the amount of P250 million in 2012. (With a report from Lauren Alimondo)