Baguio execs seek answers from BCDA on John Hay woes
BAGUIO CITY—The city government has accused the administrator of Camp John Hay of reneging on conditions it agreed to fulfill in 1994, in exchange for a city endorsement of a development project.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) had violated—and at one point challenged in court—some of the 19 conditions set by City Resolution No. 362, series of 1994.
Unlike other host towns of BCDA-administered properties, the summer capital is entitled to a 25-percent share of the rent paid by Camp John Hay’s developer under Resolution 362. But city officials have been fighting with BCDA over the agency’s interpretation and application of the rest of the conditions.
Last week, the city council received a report that BCDA had applied for rights over waterways running through several villages inside Camp John Hay, which allegedly violates Condition No. 3.
Resolution No. 362 requires BCDA to source the water supplying the zone’s “overall operations, including the various concessionaires and their clientele,” from outside Baguio. The city’s water supply is rationed each day.
BCDA spokesperson Leilani Macasaet said the city government had been misinterpreting its actions even as she affirmed that the agency would abide by Resolution 362. The water rights application, she said, was meant to regulate the use of waterways within Camp John Hay before it becomes contaminated.
“If unabated extraction of water continues, as what is presently happening, there will come a time when the water source will be depleted,” Macasaet said.
Domogan said BCDA should treat Resolution 362 “as a contract.” For example, he said, Condition No. 1 empowers the city government to issue business and building permits to enterprises operating inside the John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ), which BCDA had refused to honor.
But in a letter on Jan. 31, 2006, John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) informed the city government that businesses operating inside the JHSEZ were surrendering their city-issued business permits to be replaced by JHMC permits to operate.
The JHMC said it would operate a one-stop action center to address the clearances required by Camp John Hay investors.
In 2010, BCDA and JHMC went to court to stop the city government from issuing business permits to Camp John Hay enterprises, but a Baguio regional trial court ruled that the tax benefits enjoyed by JHSEZ investors did not include “immunity from local police power.”
One of the city government’s most contentious issues against BCDA is the mandated segregation of 14 villages inside the Camp John Hay reservation, Domogan said.
Paquito Moreno, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the DENR could not process BCDA’s land titling request “with the resolution of the issue on barangay segregation still hanging.” Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
