Baguio folk fight for ‘open spaces’ amid Camp John Hay row
VILLAGES AMONG PINES | Camp John Hay hosts the larger forest areas left in Baguio City. But between these pine patches are 14 communities, including Scout Barrio where former employees of Camp John Hay, a former American base, settled. (File photo by EV ESPIRITU / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — The city council on Monday asked the Department of Education (DepEd) to preserve a contested Camp John Hay school property by placing it under the public education system amid a legal battle with the agency supervising the former American rest and recreation base.
The century-old John Hay Elementary School (JHES) in Barangay Scout Barrio is the subject of a dispute between villagers and the John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) over who holds the rights over barangay roads, institutional lots like the school, and open public spaces, said Councilor Fred Bagbagen.
Bagbagen, a lawyer, sponsored the DepEd resolution that the council passed during its regular session on Monday.
JHMC, the Camp John Hay estate manager of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), has asserted its administrative control over all areas of the 600-hectare forest reservation, including JHES and Scout Barrio’s public spaces, he said.
The 8.9-ha Scout Barrio is the first of 14 John Hay villages to be segregated from the former American base, which was turned over by the American government after it pulled out its military from all its bases in the country in 1991. Some of these villages existed inside the forest reserve before BCDA was given control over Camp John Hay in 1992.
Article continues after this advertisementBagbagen said BCDA was obliged to separate all Camp John Hay barangays when it agreed to comply with 19 conditions that the Baguio government set in 1994 in exchange for endorsing the master development plan of the former base’s commercial and built-up areas.
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But BCDA insisted that Scout Barrio’s open spaces remain under its control when land titles were issued to its 178 residents in 2001.
In the council’s Jan. 30 session, Scout Barrio residents asked councilors to intervene and resolve the controversy, which would affect the other Camp John Hay barangays in the future, said Rusela Bacungan, president of the barangay senior citizen association.
BCDA has yet to separate the villages of Camp 7, Military Cut-Off, Sta. Escolastica Village, Country Club Village, Greenwater, Hillside, Loakan-Apugan, Loakan-Liwanag, Loakan Proper, Upper Dagsian and Lower Dagsian, Lucnab and Happy Hallow, which is designated as the city’s only Ibaloy ancestral domain.
The Scout Barrio open field, its Camp Concio Grounds, and the lots where the elementary school and barangay hall stand are part of the 15 ha mentioned in Executive Order No. 64, which segregated the barangay, Bacungan said.
The JHES, operated as a private school by Scout Barrio residents, closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its premises were briefly used as a community hall, but JHMC took over the school in May 2021.
On Jan. 23, the firm put up signage at the adjacent open field, which advised residents to seek JHMC’s permission when using the area.
