A GREEN signal from the Baguio City Council is needed before any rehabilitation can start.
City Councilor Mylen Yaranon explained this to ensure no obstacle would be encountered for rehabilitation plans for the city, adding that the legislative body has to authorize Mayor Benjamin Magalong to pursue future rehabilitation and construction work.
“All rehabilitation or construction projects of government facilities in the city should first be approved by the city council before the mayor can be give an authority to undergo with such endeavour,” said Yaranon.
“For example, we now give the mayor the authority to have a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with a technology and waste-to-energy entity which only covers the feasibility study, and the MOA with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) for the site development of housing at Irisan,” she added.
In the weekly Talakayan sa Environment Code of the Baguio Regreening Movement (BRM), the lady councilor said the authorization and council approval will avoid the impasses experienced in the ongoing rehabilitation of the Baguio Convention Center (BCC) which should have been finished and turned over to the city last August 15 which was hampered by delays.
“We also gave an authorization to enter into a MOA with Gawad Kalinga to do the construction for housing after the site development by the HLURB. We have also given to the mayor all proposals under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects which they should first be presented and approved by the council before we again give the authority to deal,” Yaranon said.
The Public Works Committee Chair earlier pointed out that the convention center was 60 percent done with the main hall already having a ceiling and walls with toilet tiles installed.
City stakeholders and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have not been meeting the past months due to an impasse in work and plans implemented for the convention center.
Confusion arose when the DPWH presented revised plans for the BCC signed by then Mayor Mauricio Domogan without blessings from neither the technical working group, the CBAO, or the City Council.
“Just like the Caltimex issue, what happened then was they were asking for an approval while the council was not aware of what that was for which is not good. The Convention center issue was an eye opener for them wherein the plan was presented. But what happened there was since this was under a DPWH contract with them having their own plans without following the plans of the city,” Yaranon said
On the 110th Founding anniversary of the country’s summer capital, Baguio City residents will see firsthand the rehabilitation works done at the Baguio Convention Center for a soft launch during the said occasion which was supposed to be turned over to the City last August 15, but have been adjusted for December this year.