Baguio council probes hazards along Kennon
BAGUIO CITY—The management of a memorial park here has initiated dialogues with households living along Kennon Road over the boulders that rolled off its property at the height of Severe Tropical Storm “Crising” (international name: Wipha) last month.
Daniel Mamaril, representative of the owner of Heaven’s Gate Memorial Garden, recounted the incident during a Baguio City Council inquiry on Monday. Holding up a rough sketch of the memorial park’s property line above Kennon Road, Mamaril said the boulders were loosened by torrential rains and fell from an undeveloped portion of the memorial park.
He described the incident as an “unforeseen calamity,” but added that the company has since deployed work crews to install engineering measures to prevent more rockfalls.
Irregularities?
What the company is now addressing are damage claims, including reparations for a house and a car that were smashed and for the dog that was crushed and killed by the boulder, Mamaril said.
The council inquiry, which also tackled alleged irregularities in public works, delved into the state of Baguio’s infrastructure amid growing backlash against supposed graft involving overpriced traffic devices procured in bulk and distributed to district engineering offices.
Engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) who attended the session said they could not comment on these projects since their records are under audit. Top DPWH officials were absent, attending instead a Senate inquiry into questionable flood control projects first flagged by President Marcos in his State of the Nation Address.
One project under review was a bypass road cutting through Heaven’s Gate property, designed to reroute traffic away from the Baguio airport runway in Barangay Loakan. The council has branded it a “road to nowhere” because it remains disconnected from other streets.
Still, the focus shifted back to the Kennon rockslides.
Engineer Nora delos Santos of the Baguio District Engineering Office confirmed that Heaven’s Gate quickly helped clear debris and build barriers to stop more rocks from cascading down to houses and endangering motorists using a section of the more than 33-kilometer Kennon. A Heaven’s Gate engineer also said workers removed rocks precariously lodged on the slopes.
Boulders also fell near a newly built Kennon Road rock shed, which absorbed most of the rockfall, though nearby road sections were severely battered.
Design questioned
Mayor Benjamin Magalong, both during Monday’s council session and in an earlier interview, questioned the design of the project.
“Why were those areas not included as part of the rock shed when there were landslides recorded there before?” he asked.
Rock sheds are reinforced tunnels designed to absorb falling debris. A similar structure protects a section of Marcos Highway, another major access road to Baguio.
Councilors Jose Molintas and Fred Bagbagen also pressed DPWH officials on a parking lot being built near the iconic Lion’s Head on Kennon Road, raising concerns it sits on unstable ground.
During the session, officials received a rebuke from Ibaloy elder Zenaida Hamada-Pawid, former chair of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. She stressed that few Kennon residents had been consulted, or even informed, about government projects meant to rehabilitate the century-old zigzag road.
Looped into planning
A Kennon resident herself, Pawid stressed: “The average citizen needs to be looped into the planning and the execution of these projects, particularly in Kennon which is a heritage property.”
Built in 1905 by the American colonial government with Filipino and foreign workers, Kennon remains the shortest route to Baguio from the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union.
Over the decades, heavy road usage and natural disasters, including the 1990 Luzon earthquake, have exposed its many geologically weak points.
Once listed by the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center as a potential rehabilitation project, Kennon Road was withdrawn from PPP consideration in 2024 and reclassified as a project for Official Development Assistance.
