Illegal structures along creeks monitored
BAGUIO CITY – (31 March 2021) – Illegal structures encroached along the city’s water ways are being monitored by the City Engineers’ Office (CEO) together with the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) and the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO).
The matter was earlier focused on during the regular Management Committee meeting with Mayor Benjamin Magalong, City Administrator Bonifacio de la Pena and city executives present.
As of latest inspection, Six Hundred and Thirteen (613) illegal structures are within the three-meter easement of Balili river’s Sagudin tributaries; not covered by building permits. These are located in Happy homes, North Sanitary Camp, Camdas, Trancoville, Alfonso Tabora, Magsaysay Private road, ABCR, New Lucban, Brookside, Honeymoon Holy Ghost, Holy Ghost extension, Imelda Village, Pacdal, Gibraltar, St. Joseph Village, Brookspoint, East Modernsite and Manuel Roxas barangays.
Said structures are privately-owned residential and boarding houses, business establishments, greenhouses, bodega, concrete fences, shanties and sheds, comfort rooms, water tanks, piggery, gazebo, plant boxes, septic tanks and on-going extension construction.
Some structures are built on slabs on top of the creek while some are at least five-storeys high with attics and basement floors; with length extending up to 50meters and width up to 20meters.
A church hall, a private bank, portions of a public and a private school, morgue, stores, waiting shed and barangay halls complete the list.
In a report, identified owners of said properties have been issued first and second notices of violation, as certified by the CEO, in violation of several sections of Ordinance 18, series of 2016 or the Environmental Code of Baguio City. The absence of building permits are also in violation of the National Building Code of PD 1096 in relation to the Letter of Instruction 19, series of 1972 ordering the removal of illegal construction on public and private property without permission from the owner.
Reports of violations shall be submitted for scheduled hearings at the CBAO, after which titled properties and those with applications at the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) shall be the subject of relocation surveys, while administrative remedies shall be exhausted for undocumented structures.
Non-resolved issues shall be forwarded to the anti-squatting and anti-illegal structures committee who after investigation may recommend for demolition of said structures. – Julie G. Fianza
