Legal battle looms between Baguio, Tieza over Burnham Park

SUMMER DESTINATION | Tourists enjoy a boat ride at Burnham Lake in Baguio City in this photo taken on April 5. The Baguio government acquired a special patent from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources over portions of Burnham Park, including the man-made lake, but it is being contested by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority. (Photo by JETHRO BRYAN ANDRADA / Contributor)

BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — The summer capital is bracing for a legal challenge to the special land title it acquired over historic Burnham Park, and Baguio officials are now mending fences with tourism agencies.

The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) is reviewing Original Certificate of Title (OCT) No. 2023000017 that was granted over the Burnham Lake, the Ibaloy Garden, and the Baguio Orchidarium, the Children’s Park, and the Melvin Jones Football Grounds, lawyer Brendan Quintos, legal officer of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in the Cordillera, informed the city council on Monday.

Tieza, which replaced the Philippine Tourism Authority, is the government administrator of national parks and had intended to finance the 2019 rehabilitation and modernization of the century-old park when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.

Quintos said the country’s park regulators were not advised by the Baguio government when it proceeded to title almost half of the 32.8-hectare Burnham Park, which was conceived as the “breathable lung” of the American-built city.

Baguio was designed by the late Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, for whom the famous park was named.

The city government was granted management control over Burnham Park by the late President Fidel V. Ramos, and full administrative control by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2008.

But Tieza has asserted its mandate over all national parks and may contest Baguio’s title following a March 29 meeting between Baguio officials, Tieza, and the DOT, according to junior officials of the Baguio General Services Office (GSO).

Protected reservation

One of the legal issues raised in that meeting was whether titling a government property established by a proclamation was proper, the council was told.

Burnham Park was declared a protected reservation by Proclamation No. 64 in 1925. Baguio Rep. Marquez Go also filed a bill in 2019 that sought to convert Burnham Park into a heritage park.

The special patent granted to Baguio on March 3 by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is the product of a city government initiative to preserve city property and historic lands within the Baguio townsite reservation.

All townsite lands were declared alienable (or properties that could be sold) when Baguio was chartered in 1909. Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan said Baguio acted because untitled sections of Burnham Park could be the subject of townsite sales applications.