[ Manila Bulletin Online ] January 11, 2009
By DEXTER A. SEE
Baguio mayor urges networking of urban centers
BAGUIO CITY -- The overflowing development in this mountain resort city must be shared with other urban centers in the different parts of the Cordillera to ensure a balanced development.
This was advocated by Mayor Reinaldo A. Bautista Jr., who said the networking of local government units, especially those in the urban centers, and the fast rising towns in the region, could help solve the overcrowding in this city.
He said he is willing to share his time, efforts, and the city’s resources in the formulation of a realistic master plan for development in the region.
Contrary to a claim of Tabuk City officials that he betrayed them when he signed a petition of the League of Cities of the Philippines that questions the conversion of 16 towns into cities, he said it is high time for other urban centers in the region, like Tabuk, to be upgraded through a collaborative effort.
Bautista said the action of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera to expand the coverage of the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba (BLIST) growth area to other deserving local government units is a giant step towards spreading development for the benefit of the people in other provinces.
The benefits of networking of local governments, Bautista said, would include improved infrastructure, better accessibility, more investment opportunities, better transport services, and additional employment opportunities.
This way, the city’s chief executive said, Baguio City would be spared from the negative effects of rapid urbanization, particularly environmental degradation, lack of water supply, and worsening traffic problem.
The BLIST growth area concept was envisioned in the mid-1990s to spread the expected development boom in this city to some parts of Benguet, particularly the neighboring towns of Itogon, La Trinidad, Sablan and Tuba.
But this did not materialize because some Benguet leaders believed that their towns will just absorb the problems of the city in terms of garbage collection and other headaches.
Bautista said the networking of urban centers in the region is a good start of how to project the benefits of autonomy or federalism which is being pushed by the RDC.
He said the city government is willing to initiate the proposed networking of urban centers in the region.
In this way, he said, the overflowing development in the city could be distributed to other potential areas in the region. He also said that Cordillera is conducive to various forms of investments provided the local officials and the people are properly informed of the importance of fresh capital in their areas.
The RDC is now in the process of laying the ground work for regional autonomy and development.
