Aliping eyes repeal of possible Charter Change law

April 9, 2022 Metro BLISTT

With President Rodrigo Duterte either acting on House bill 8882 or not, former Baguio Rep. Nicasio Aliping, Jr. will campaign hard to beat the congressman responsible for filing the bill that will affect the city’s Charter Change.
“It is for this reason that I want to beat him this May and have the law repealed,” said the congressman from 2013 until 2016. During Friday’s press conference called by councilors Arthur Allad-iw, Mylen Yaranon, and Isabelo Cosalan, Jr., Aliping said that the bill did not consider the 19 conditionalities that set forth the development of Camp John Hay.
Instead, the Go bill will increase the property of the Bases Conversion Authority, which owns the former American base, by 55 hectares. The bill did not undergo proper consultation as well as a plebiscite to determine if the people will support the provisions of the bill.
He said that the Baguio people will be disenfranchised once it is signed into law by the president not later than April 11, or on Monday.
“If he acts on it, it will be a law, if he does not act then it will still become a law,” he said. For this, he needs to win the May 9 election as he will prioritize the repeal of said law. Members of the Baguio City Council Friday attempted a last-minute appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte to veto a bill that amends the city’s 103-year old Charter.
The councilors are urging the president to veto HB 8882 which both chambers of Congress passed on the third and final reading last March 7. Cosalan said one of the issues that should be stressed in the bill is the establishment of Baguio’s metes and bounds or the territories and boundaries of Baguio with other municipalities and areas.
The approved bill has been relayed to the Malacañang for Duterte’s signature to make it into law or veto it. A letter of communication from the Office of the President reaches the local officials of Baguio that if the said bill will not be acted upon by Duterte, it will automatically be a law on April 11, 2022. Last March 24, nine councilors through a resolution plead to the president not to sign said bill.
Pigeon Lobien/ABN