14 Baguio City barangays oppose Camp John Hay claim over their lands

Camp John Hay in Baguio City  Photo Credit HeraldExpress

BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan and the punong barangays of the fourteen barangays within the 686-hectare Camp Jon Hay (CJH) reservation expressed their vehement opposition to the processing of the patents applied for by the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) over portions of the said barangays.

The local chief executive said that the act of JHMC and the State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is in alleged violation of one of the 19 conditions imposed by the local government for the development of the former American rest and recreation center which is to segregate the area covered by the 14 barangays from the CJH reservation so that it will be the qualified individual occupants who will be processing the titles over their properties.

“We cannot understand why JHMC still continues to work on the applied patenting of various lands within the fourteen barangays when it was already brought to the attention of former JHMC officials that the local government and the concerned barangays are against the said move considering that it will defeat the purpose of the segregation of the barangays from the John Hay reservation,” Domogan stressed.

He underscored that the patenting of the lands in the different barangays as being done by the CDA and JHMC is allegedly geared towards the fact that it will be the two corporations that will eventually sell the patented properties which is not in accordance to the conditions imposed by the local government for the development of the 247-hectare John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ).

Resolution No. 362, series of 1994 provides for the 19 conditions imposed by the local government purposely to pave the way for the development of the declared 247-hectare special economic zone which was unanimously approved by the first members of the BCDA Board of Directors.

According to him, what JHMC and BCDA should do now is to fastrack the segregation of the barangays so that qualified individual homelot applicants can process the titles of their properties through the Townsite Sales Application, Miscellaneous Sales Application or patent, depending on what is applicable.

He said that he will bring the matter to the attention of the JHMC and BCDA for them to stop the processing of the applied patents over the different barangays and for the State corporations to instead fastrack the long-delayed processing of the segregation of the 14 barangays from the reservation.

He stated that the decision to patent the lands in the different barangays was spearheaded by former BCDA president and chief executive officer Arnel Paciano Casanova and JHMC president Dr. Jamie Eloise Agbayani but he is not aware if the present batch of BCDA and JHMC officials are inclined to pursue the plan as there has been no continuous dialogue between city officials and those in the BCDA and JHMC.

The BCDA and its subsidiary, the JHMC, is the manager and administrator of all former United States military bases and facilities in the country and it is mandated to allocate funds for the modernization of the armed forces through the income derived from the operation of the said installations nationwide. (HeraldExpress)