[ Manila Bulletin Online ] June 4, 2008
By DEXTER SEE
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Provincial and Baguio City officials are now at odds over the alleged expansion of the territorial jurisdiction of the city brought about by the proposed amendment of the century-old city charter pending approval before the House of Representatives.
This developed as Benguet officials pressed for a more accurate technical description that would reflect the actual boundaries of Baguio City with its neighboring municipalities, notably the towns of Tuba, Sablan, Itogon and this capital town.
According to them, such data would determine the exact territory of the city in relation to its neighboring municipalities.
So far, the information on technical date was sourced from the office of Baguio City Rep. Mauricio G. Domogan, author of House bill 2813 which seeks to amend the city’s century-old charter.
Under the proposed bill, what was retained as the land area for Baguio City is 57.496670 square kilometers as detailed and fixed in Executive Order No. 37 of Governor-General Leonard Wood on August 6, 1925.
However, provincial officials were surprised about such information since they thought all along that the city was comprised of not less than 49 square kilometers, thus, there seems to be a substantial increase in area doubting that the data provided by Domogan’s office is correct.
Ironically, much of the misunderstanding on the proposed bill stemmed from the lack of information among the various offices.
They cited the case of the boundary dispute between Tuba and Baguio City which has long been settled on June 14, 2005 which showed that even with the boundary settlement, the land area of Baguio did not increase and that the land area of Tuba did not decrease.
Benguet officials believe that the technical description is seen to provide a more realistic picture of the boundaries of the different local government units concerned, thus, concerned agencies must work out the issuance of such data before the passage of the bill.
Domogan wants Congress to approve the revised city charter before September 1, 2009 so that the city will be given a gift with a new and updated charter that would clearly identify its boundaries with the neighboring towns as well as define the city’s land concerns to prevent the massive disposal of public lands to unscrupulous individuals.
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