Noy vetoes bill amending Baguio City charter

BAGUIO City, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III has thumbed down amendments of the city's century old charter that seeks to stave off outdated provisions especially on tenurial rights and land dispositions.

Rejecting to sign into law House Bill 3759 (Act Revising the Charter of Baguio City), Aquino ruled he is returning the measure without his signature and is vetoing it insisting the objectives of the bill relating to local governmental powers are already covered by the present Local Government Code of 1991.

The President said “The proposed measure impinges on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ exclusive mandate over control and supervision of alienable and disposable public lands and runs counter to the laws governing the disposition of townsite reservations.”

Aquino also highlighted Section 35 of the proposed charter and said it is “ambiguous as to the entity that may dispose of alienable and disposable lands which are part of the townsite reservation.”

The President said that when the provision governing the disposition of such lands is unclear as to who initiates the selling, the measure may be interpreted as empowering the local government of Baguio City to dispose of alienable and disposable lands.

The measure, the President added, runs counter with the mandate of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, making the bill’s implementation difficult while Section 36 of the proposed amended charter mandates that proceeds of the sale of lands through miscellaneous sales applications will accrue to the City Treasury and not to the National Treasury as mandated by the Public Land Act to serve as general fund of the government.

Possible conflicts of Sections 35 and 36 of the proposed measure with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority Act of 1992, particularly on the disposition of lands already transferred to the BCDA were also identified by Malacanang. “All proceeds from the disposition of BCDA lands, the President said, should accrue to the BCDA.

With it, the bill’s proponent, Rep. Bernardo Vergara lamented, “(Aquino) has thwarted the long-aspired far-ranging socio economic and political benefits for Baguio especially on resolving land use problems.

The City’s charter was enacted in 1909 under the American colonial government.

Amendments to the charter were introduced 12 years ago by then congressman and now city Mayor Mauricio Domogan and refiled in the 15th Congress by Vergara.

Revisions were earlier approved by the bicameral conference committee November 20 of last year, two years after it was refilled in the House in 2010.

Vergara said the veto has doused landless Baguio residents “the opportunity to acquire a landlot of their own.”

“Nowhere does the bill says the city acquires control and disposition over alienable and disposable lands,”  Vergara said, explaining, under section 35,  the DENR retains this authority through an inter-agency committee led by the DENR secretary and the Lands Management director and the Baguio City Mayor as members.

The city’s historical suffering with this process has been “less than satisfactory” that for many years, the city noted more than 5,000 backlog in settling applications for the townsite reserved lots.  â€œApplicant shave grown old and have died indicating how tedious and heart-breaking the process of processing TSA has become,”  the Baguio solon said.

Vergara further said that the he could not agree to Aquino's opinion that the bill runs counter to Section 80 of the Public Land Act which mandates proceeds from land sales including townsite reservations shall accrue to the national treasury.

He also said that the measure does not mean to deprive the BCDA of proceeds and is therefore violative of the BCDA law.

“I must emphasize that BCDA land assets in Baguio (i.e. Camp John Hay) are not alienable and disposable lands.” The revised charter cannot interfere in the disposition of public properties owned by the BCDA," he said.