UNLESS the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) changes its mind, Baguio would lose one of its few remaining pinestands that its residents built and nurtured beside the Baguio Convention Center.
The GSIS had accepted the city government’s offer to buy the Baguio Convention Center but raised the price for the tree stand beside it that the local government would like to save for posterity.
Initially, GSIS planned to sell the forested area to Shoemart, the giant mall which planned to build on the area four condotels called “Baguio Air Residences.”
Alarmed over the destruction of the forest, the city offered to buy the tree stand. GSIS initially agreed, giving relief to city mayor Mauricio Domogan and other city officials who made the offer.
In a recent letter to the mayor, however, GSIS president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas said the price for two lots covering the convention center and the forest with a total area of about 33,606 was upped from P433,517,400 to P682,201,800, valid until June 21, 2018.
Aranas noted that GSIS is governed by the provisions of R.A. 8291 which provides, in part “the GSIS shall conduct an annual appraisal of its property or assets to determine its current market value.”
This posture prompted mayor Domogan to write President Rodrigo Duterte seeking his intervention, saying “if the city successfully acquires the said property, it can not maximize its use for 16,536 square meters of the property will remain as a tree park and the Southwestern portion of the said property is occupied by informal settlers.”
The city’s bid to save the forest again drew the support of pupils of the Baguio Pines Family Learning Center who will submit their personal letters seeking President Duterte’s support to Baguio’s bid to have the area preserved as a pine stand.
Pupils from the said school also wrote then President Gloria Arroyo years back against Shoemart’s plan to build the condotels in the area.
Long-time residents of the city are alarmed over its rapid urbanization and are bound to protest any effort to sell the property for business enterprise.
“The best thing that GSIS can do is to accept the city’s offer to buy back what it used to own before the same was assigned to a government agency by then President Marcos so the Baguio Convention Center could be built as venue of the World Chess Championship series between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.
“GSIS must remember it did not spend a single centavo in acquiring the lot as it was assigned to it by Presidential signature,” a Baguio resident observed.
“It’s more than enough that the city would pay the lot GSIS acquired for free, an arrangement we’re sure would be supported by GSIS members all over the country who want to help protect Baguio’s remaining pine,” a city official said.
“We have to prevent further erosion of Baguio’s environment, specially so now that people tend to believe it’s high-time to check on buildings like in Boracay,” another resident said.
Perhaps the best argument or this was a GSIS executive’s comment when it bought “Parisian Life”, a painting by Juan Luna.
“We do not only ensure people; we also ensure national heritage like the painting,” a GSIS official explained.
So is the pine tree a part of national heritage that Baguio would like to protect.
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