OVER a hundred walked around Burnham Park, urging Baguio City to stop the planned podium parking in the area.
The group, The Baguio We Want, spearheaded the walk early morning to show where the proposed parking structure will stand and emphasize the importance of the park for health, family and recreation.
Students, professionals and residents joined the walk showing solidarity to the stand of the group that parks are not for cars but for people.
Opposition continues to mount against the proposals of Councilors Benny Bomogao, Michael Lawana, and Faustino Olowan for the construction of a podium car parking in Ganza, in between orchidarium and the children’s park and the whole stretch of the city Library.
The walk was led by Raymundo Rovillos, chair for the group and chancellor of the University of the Philippines, who is advocating for sustainable tourism and a park free from high rise structures.
The group is also asserting the area is a heritage site and is part of the vision of Architect Daniel Burnham in accordance to his “beautiful city concept.”
The group earlier talked to Representative Mark Go to gain support against the planned car park within the park reservation.
Rovillos said the people’s initiative to gather signature will quell speculation the online petition has garnered the support because of the worldwide reach of the digital platform but lacked the actual numbers if taken on the ground.
In the group’s social media page, it details how the park has evolved since the time of the original Ibaloy settlers with the stream as water source that feeds into what the Ibaloy described as miñac, the Burnham Lake and its surrounding area was included in the plan for Baguio, designed by and named after premier American architect and urban planner Daniel Hudson Burnham, with Pierce Anderson on June 27, 1905.
Before Burnham’s design was set in place, the flat, mossy area served as watering hole for cows after feeding on grasses all over Kafagway.
William Parsons detailed and executed the town plan in 1909, subsequently given more details by 1913 in the evolved Burnham Park.