CITY LETS BCBC ADOPT “CAMP PEPPOT” THRU MOA

December 21, 2024 Headlines

BAGUIO CITY

The Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club will raise about PhP500,000 to fund the improvement of the
picnic grove of the Burnham Park after formally adopting same last Friday. BCBC president Thomas Antonio Picaña said this after signing the memorandum of agreement with Baguio mayor Benjamin Magalong and the City Environment and Parks Management Office where the media organization formally adopted the area it uses for the
annual Lucky Summer Visitors for more than 30 year snow.

The MOA that will be soon notarized for its formalization is “relative to your (BCBC) interest to adopt a portion of
the Picnic Grove at Burnham Park, Baguio City.” Magalong and assistant CEPM Officer Marivic Empizo, the latter served as witness for the city, signed the MOA with BCBC president Thomas Picaña and was witnessed by the club’s
business manager Rizaldy Comanda. The nearly 700 square meters picnic grove is used as the Media Camp especially during the Holy Week where the BCBC hosts the LSV.

Earlier, Picaña expressed elation over the prospect of signing the MOA and is looking forward to funding the upgrade of the area used during the Holy Week for the annual LSV and media camp. “Now we can start working on the possible funding of the camp’s upgrade,” said the Amianan Balita Ngayon editor/ publisher. It will be recalled that in June of this year, the BCBC wrote the city through Magalong that it intends to adopt the area which it will call
Camp Pepot. He said that the media intends to call it the Camp Peppot in honor of the late Jose Nicolas Ilagan, editor of the defunct Gold Ore and a one-time city councilor, who started a media camp in front of the office of the defunct paper at the former Baguio Colleges Foundation, now the University of the Cordilleras in 1988.

The camp he started became the headquarters of the club’s older annual project, the LSV, especially when it moved
to its present location after the 1990 earthquake. Picaña said that the club will source out PhP500,000 for the upgrade of the area, where it will introduce landscaping, lighting and additional chairs and tables. Magalong said that the city will definitely help fund the upgrade of the area, while divulging that it is included in the general improvements the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority or TIEZA.

Magalong added that it will be part of the PhP700 million the TIEZA earmarked to improve the city’s centerpiece
park but it will be the last phase of the development plan the agency conceived. In September 11, CEPMO head Rhenan Diwas, a lawyer, forwarded the MOA draft to Picaña for the club’s comments and suggestions and returned
same to his office on September 17 “for finalization and scheduling of MOA signing With Picana signing it, the
BCBC will serve as a “volunteer” and commit “to support the City improve the lighting system of the parks by
participating in the Adopt-A-Park Program at the Picnic Grove,…”

Said program “is a concept that gives opportunities for other government and non-government entities to
participate in the development activities for city parks, as long as the terms and conditions stipulated in the agreement is strictly followed;…” The soon to be signed MOA will recognize BCBC’s conduct of the annual search
and other activities “and shall act as the development partner in improvement and maintenance of the area;…” But the BCBC will, as the MOA stipulated: “Not encumber or alienate any portion of the Park but to ensure the preservation and accessibility to the public.”

For its part, the city government shall “exercise solely the rights and powers to review and approve whatever
programs and/or projects undertaken by the volunteer (all caps) through the CEPM, prior to its implementation;…”
It will also “supervise the execution of all programs, projects and/or activities within the area;…” as well as “ensure
the reservation and/or safeguarding of all park facilities thereat;…” The MOA took effect immediately after its signing and “shall remain valid for one (1) year in accordance with the foregoing terms and conditions.”

BCBC Release