BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domoganordered the City Planning and Development Office to issue the required clearances for the construction activities in the city’s barangays, specifically those situated in already identified geologically hazardous areas to ensure the safety of residents and prevent untoward incidents that compromise safety.
Further, the local chief executive directed barangay officials to help the city government in monitoring illegal construction activities in their respective jurisdictions by reporting these to concerned offices in order to timely stop the illegal constructions.
“Our barangay officials must be steadfast in reporting to concerned offices existing illegal constructions so that these will be stopped while the structures are not yet completed. Structures in identified critical areas must be stopped in order to prevent the occurrence of more serious problems for the barangay and the city,”Domogan stressed.
The city mayor underscored reporting the illegal construction activities in the different barangays, particularly those situated in identified critical areas, will lessen the problems of the city government in dealing with those located in geologically hazardous areas in the future.
According to him, disaster preparedness should be inculcated to the public to lessen the impacts of natural and human-related disasters as residents will be aware of the proper thing to doin times of disaster.
Domoganemphasizedthat proper attitude can prevent man-made disasters while readiness of locals can help mitigate impacts of natural disasters.
He exhorted concerned city government officesto strictly evaluate applications of permits for construction activities in identified geographically hazardous areas to address possible complications right from the start of the construction instead of addressing these in the future.
He appealed to residents to help their barangays officials by reporting construction activities in critical areas and for barangay officials to exercise their police powers by inspecting appropriate permits from the building owners so that there will be a concerted effort to stop illegal constructions in the city’s 128 barangays and thus prevent one of the identified causes of man-made disasters compromising the safety of the safety of people and their properties.
Domogan emphasized that geohazard maps prepared by the Cordillera office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureauwill serve as the basis for barangay officials to closely monitor the construction activities in their respective areas of jurisdiction and for them to have the license to check on the permits issued by concerned city government offices./By Dexter A. See
