Baguio townsite rules set for review amid land mess

BUILT BY AMERICANS Baguio City was designed on a plateau by the American colonial government when it sought a health sanctuary in the Cordillera mountains in the early 1900s. But the country's summer capital was built on settled lands, and the recognition of Ibaloy land rights has made property issues in the 116-year-old city more complicated. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO

BAGUIO CITY—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will review townsite rules in this city later this month amid long-standing land conflicts involving government property, ancestral lands, informal settlements, investors and shrinking forest areas.

Councilor Peter Fianza, a lawyer and former city administrator, said he would join the DENR forum to ensure that new rules remain consistent with the city’s goal of titling occupied lands and resolving decades of disputes.

Some officials, however, are exploring another option—abolishing Baguio’s townsite reservation altogether, the Inquirer learned.

Baguio Rep. Mauricio Domogan told the Inquirer in a recent interview that removing the townsite system could be part of a draft bill correcting flaws in the city’s modern charter, Republic Act No. 11689. This replaced Baguio’s 1909 charter after lapsing into law at the end of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in 2022.

Townsite sales, administered by the old Bureau of Lands, used to be Baguio’s only mode of acquiring property, which allowed settlers to title up to a hectare of occupied real estate.

The DENR describes townsites as “proclaimed areas specifically reserved for the establishment of a new town as provided for in Chapter XI Title V of C.A. 141, or the Public Land Act as amended.” Baguio remains the country’s model for townsite reservations where all lands are declared public and are alienable and disposable.

Massive backlog

But the processing of townsite applications had dragged for years, leading to a massive backlog in 1986. It also competed with other modes of land titling, such as certificate of land ownership award from the Department of Agrarian Reform and certificate of ancestral land title when the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra) became law in 1997.

Solving the townsite sales application backlog triggered the first proposal in 2001 to amend the charter and give Baguio control over the townsite.

Fixing the Baguio land problem also fueled the first charter modernization bill pushed by Domogan, a former mayor, when he served as the city’s lone representative to Congress in 2001.

Disestablishing Baguio as a townsite has always been the goal, Domogan said.