STATE-OWNED Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and its subsidiary the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) said the government is committed in segregating the 13 remaining villages within the 625-hectare Camp John Hay (CJH) watershed reservation.
This developed after the present leadership has given the go-signal for the agreed mode of segregation to be put in place.
Engineer Bobby Akia, who represented JHMC during the regular session of the City Council, recently said he will still present to BCDA officials the proposed version of the local government on the segregation process and the JHMC’s position before pursuing the segregation of the concerned villages.
The local legislative body invited BCDA and JHMC officials to get their commitments on the government’s stand on the condition of the local government for BCDA to exclude the 13 villages within the CJH reservation as part of the 19 conditions imposed by the city for the development of the former American military base into a world-class tourism and recreation center.
Local legislators expressed their disappointment over the failure of the segregation process of the 13 villages to be completed despite the lapse of over two decades since the privatization of the 247-hectare John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ).
Resolution No. 362, series of 1994 stipulates the 19 conditions of the local government for the privatization of the JHSEZ and one of the conditions was the supposed segregation of the 14 barangays within the CJH watershed from the said reservation.
However, only the portions of Scout Barrio, which is one of the villages within the watershed, were segregated from the reservation while other villages were subjected to structural and pertinent surveys related to the identification of the metes and boundaries of the concerned barangays.
Members of the local legislative body pressed for the conduct of continuous consultations with the city officials for the harmonization and synchronization of plans on how to undertake the segregation process.
Akia sought the help of city officials to request the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to furnish the JHMC with the results of its cadastral survey over the reservation for the BCDA subsidiary to align how to implement the segregation process of the 13 barangays.
The local legislative body also requested the JHMC to furnish the local government and the concerned villages with the results of the survey undertaken during the previous administration for them to come out with their recommendations on how to smoothly implement the process during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Village officials admitted they were furnished with the results of the structural survey while other village officials claimed they were not provided a copy of the survey results, thus, the need for JHMC to be clear on the matter before pursuing the next step for the segregation of the villages. (Dexter See/PIO)