City awaits EO on moratorium on construction of high-rise buildings

THE local government of Baguio City is awaiting the release of President Rodrigo Duterte's executive order for a moratorium on the construction of high-rise buildings in the city.

In a multi-sectoral dialogue called for by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Cordillera, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the executive order would give an opportunity for the local government to temporarily stop the issuances of building permits and review all applicants prior to construction of any high-rise infrastructures in the city.

“I’m still not sure when the executive order on the moratorium on high-rise buildings will be issued but the good news is that we have the support of (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu and (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año who are on top of this and I hope this would be fast-tracked including of course the fund that we need for the rehabilitation of our sewerage system,” Magalong said.

Aside from the moratorium on high-rise buildings, a P365-million rehabilitation fund for the sewerage treatment plant (STP) of the city that will be done by two private companies was also discussed, including the management of the Baguio Water District of the STP, and a one year moratorium of tree cutting permits.

“Although a review of issued land titles in areas like the Busol watershed may take some time but for the meantime, what we need to address here is the ongoing constructions, which need an immediate action and for these to be demolished, which is why we have ordered an inventory of all structures within the watershed area especially the new ones which crossed the fence because we will not tolerate this. We only have a limited area for our watershed and people still take advantage of this. We will never allow it, we will never tolerate it,” Magalong said.

Another measure being studied by the mayor is the abolition of the zoning board, which gave exemptions in the past without following the rules on easements among others.

“What we are studying now is the zoning board and because we have an existing Comprehensive Land Use Plan than, there should be no exemptions, so I’m thinking of abolishing the zoning board but there are only some sensitivities especially for telecommunications companies which is highly technical and which will affect us since telecommunications is very important to us. Personally, it should be abolished so that no exemptions may be given, we will strictly adhere to the provisions of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan,” the mayor stated.

“We support the scheduled land summit to be called for by Congressman Mark Go because it should be encompassing and our approach should be comprehensive and holistic. I believe that this is part of his bill on the creation of the BLISTT which is the right approach for everyone to be listened to because people were claiming before that there was a lack in consultation but this time he is trying to remedy it and we support it, helping them will help Baguio,” he added.