BCDA to begin review of gov’t commitments to Baguio
BAGUIO CITY—The administrator of Camp John Hay will audit all of its commitments to the summer capital and open discussions on contentious issues, like the government-recognized ancestral lands and separation of 14 villages inside the former American rest and recreation base land, to cement its good relationship with Baguio.
Lawyer Marlo Ignacio Quadra, newly appointed president of the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC), said Mayor Benjamin Magalong and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) are putting up a technical working group to determine what Baguio is owed from 27 years of development inside the former American military’s John Hay Air Station.
JHMC, John Hay’s estate manager, is a subsidiary of BCDA.The Baguio city council recently asked BCDA, which oversees all former American base lands in the country, for a dialogue to establish how much the mountain city has been affected by the more than ten years of contractual feud between the government and the camp’s developer, Camp John Hay Development Corporation (CJHDevco).
The BCDA-Baguio talks would be on offshoot of the April 13 ruling of the Supreme Court reinstating a 2015 arbiter’s decision that voided the 1996 John Hay lease agreement between BCDA and CJHDevco for the latter to develop 247 hectares of built-up lands within the camp into a commercial and tourism district. The SC also ordered the government to reimburse CJHDevco its P1.4 billion rental expenses, as required by the arbiters.
However, the SC ruling has yet to be enforced because of a motion for reconsideration pursued by CJHDevco and by the companies and about 40 families that have 50-year lease contracts, or up to 2046, with CHJDevco.
For this reason, lawyer Christian Duldulao, OIC of BCDA’s legal office, declined to explain the SC decision during the council’s special session on June 28 that was supposed to tackle John Hay.
1996 contract
The city council was concerned that the dissolution of the 1996 John Hay contract also put into question Baguio’s entitlements from John Hay, such as the rental shares remitted to the city until the feud froze the payments in 2011, prompting one councilor to ask if Baguio would be required to return the money.
Quadra, speaking here on Thursday, said BCDA would continue to use the master development plan endorsed by the city government in 1994, which meant it would abide by the 19 conditions Baguio set for approving John Hay’s commercialization.
Among these conditions were Baguio’s 25-percent rental share, recognition of Ibaloy ancestral properties within John Hay and the exclusion of 14 villages and its settlements within John Hay. One of these villages is Barangay Happy Hollow, which was recognized as the ancestral domain of Ibaloys.
“We [JHMC] believe we have fulfilled some of the conditions so we want to review the commitments because maybe we can add more,” said Quadra, a Baguio-born resident.
Quadra said he could not outline future plans for John Hay, pending instructions from BCDA, although he confirmed Magalong’s earlier revelations that the government would entertain smaller John Hay investors instead of a single developer moving forward.
