Still No Go for BCDA-JHMC Meet with SP; Dads Ask for Rescheduling
June 20, 2015
BAGUIO CITY – For the nth time, the city council-scheduled meeting with the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) did not materialize after the heads of the two agencies begged off anew from attending the body’s special session last Tuesday due to earlier commitments.
The body however sought rescheduling of the special session and to based it on the available time of the BCDA and JHMC heads.
BCDA president and chief executive officer Arnel Paciano Casanova said he and other officers had to attend the corporate planning sessions scheduled on the same week as the council’s special session. He however asked the body to “consider another date to allow us to attend and enlighten the Sanggunian on the issues concerning John Hay and the BCDA.”
JHMC president and chief executive officer Jamie Eloise Agbayani for her part also had to attend an “equally important matter in Manila which was scheduled and confirmed prior to receiving your invitation.” She said she will refer the body’s concerns to the BCDA and they will respond as soon as possible.
The aldermen said they have to pursue the meeting to once and for all clarify the issues concerning Camp John Hay particularly on the 19 conditionalities.
The issues were highlighted after the court rescinded the lease agreement between the BCDA and the Camp John Hay Development Corporation (CJHDevCo).
Mayor Mauricio Domogan stressed that despite the rescission of the agreement, BCDA must still honor the 19 conditionalities set by the city government.
He said the conditionalities as contained in Resolution Numbered 362, series of 1994 have existed even before the project was bid out and were even incorporated in some provisions of the master plan.
The mayor also said that the conditions were a covenant between the city government and the BCDA and not with the CJHDevCo so the BCDA must continue honoring the agreement.
The city has been appealing to the BCDA-JHMC to comply with the conditions particularly on the segregation of the 13 barangays from the reservation, provision of its own water source and to pay the city’s share from the lease rentals./A Refuerzo
