MOA inked for La Trinidad's Stone Hill

DRYING of laundry in the verandas of houses along KM. 3 in La Trinidad, popularly known as Stone Hill will no longer be allowed.

This after a Memorandum of Agreement has been formally signed to transform Stone Hill into a giant art piece.

Painting of at least 200 houses into a single mural similar to the Favela art of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is set to commence as part of the tourism transformation plans of the Department of Tourism in the region.

The plan was sealed with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement recently between the DOT Cordillera, the local government of La Trinidad and Davies Paints Inc.

Mayor Edna Tabanda said in the MOA, Davies will supply the paint materials for the houses and will also paint selected overpasses, welcome arches, sidewalk gutters, pedestrian lanes, signage and other structures as identified by DOT and La Trinidad municipal government for free.

As a counterpart, the municipality will provide for the paint brushes and scaffolding of the said project.

Labor will be the counterpart of the residents, Tabanda said. Volunteers for the painting works will be trained by Davies on January 13.

“The LGU have conducted consultations with the residents and gained their consent prior to the MOA signing,” Tabanda said.

The DOT is working with the Tam-awan Village Artists for the design of the painting work.

DOT Regional Director Marie Venus Tan proposed the transformation of Stone Hill landscape into a Favela-inspired work of art.

The Favela art first earned popularity in Brazil after heavily populated urban informal settlements characterized by substandard housing and squalor were turned into a tourism destination by painting houses in a rainbow of bright colors.

Tan said rapid growth, commercialization, and lack of a comprehensive development and zoning plans have caused the degradation and deterioration of Baguio and La Trinidad as prime tourist destinations, thus the need to revitalize the grandeur through re-greening and re-blooming.

Tan explained the beautification plan is in consonance with the Baguio-Boracay Redevelopment Task Force created in 2013 by President Benigno Aquino III under Memorandum Circular 47.