Public rallied behind ‘Angat Baguio’ drive with eye on curbing urban decay

PEOPLE IN BAGUIO have learned to live with the coronavirus disease as they go about their weekly routines with masks and Face shields, whether at work or when undertaking household chores. PHOTO BY EV ESPIRITU

BAGUIO CITY –– Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Tuesday, Sept. 1, rallied Baguio residents to help rebuild the economy which was “brought to its knees” by six months of lockdown and the prevailing quarantine.

Speaking at the city’s 111th founding day program, Magalong said the coronavirus pandemic struck at a time when his administration started the redevelopment of Baguio. He said the city was “at its tipping point” due to overpopulation and overdevelopment.

The coronavirus “put pressure on our very social foundations,” the mayor said.

Magalong said Baguio’s issues with dwindling water and diminished forests meant the government had to act “as if this was our 11th hour.”

“The 11th hour is the final moment when change is possible,” he said, so Baguio residents need to help now that “our own survival is challenged and the economy brought to its knees by this disease.”

Reduced budget

The city government has reduced its proposed 2021 budget to P1.9 billion from this year’s P2.3 billion due to the economic slowdown, expecting a drastic slide in 2021 taxes that may affect projects.

Since businesses were closed from March to May during the Luzon lockdown, and enterprises associated with tourism and leisure remained closed as of August, the city government anticipates a 50-percent drop in next year’s taxes due to diminished business activities, said Alex Cabarrubias, city treasurer, during a budget review last week.

But fiscal projections for next year showed a potential increase in realty taxes to P151 million from this year’s P100 million that may help replenish the city’s coffers, he said. The city government will enforce a 70-percent hike in realty taxes in 2021 and a full increase by 2022.

The increase may also trigger investor interest in Baguio government lands that will improve the city’s finances.

To perk up the economy and reduce Baguio’s reliance on its Internal Revenue Allotment, Magalong last week suggested acquiring more lands “to entice potential investors for income-generating ventures.” The IRA is the local government share from all taxes collected by the national government, which could also be affected by the recession.

Moving forward

In his Baguio Day speech, the mayor said the government would proceed with initiatives like the modernization of the public market and the city’s drain and sewage system and the development of a waste-to-energy facility which would now be redesigned to benefit the city and five neighboring towns in Benguet province.

These projects were delayed by the quarantine, and the realignment of national and local funds to build more public health and isolation centers.

Tourism was hardest hit, losing P1.6 billion from March to August, so Magalong urged residents “to rediscover our own city and be our city’s tourists.”

Magalong stressed that allowing back tourists to Baguio would be “gradual, calibrated and based on our degree of confidence.”

September was originally conceived as a target for opening the city to tourists.

LZB