There is this “sincere” open letter made by the president and CEO of Bases
Conversion Development Authority specially for the City Government of Baguio
and for other parties concerned. After reading his open letter, I have figured
out that most of his points are misleading and are pretty one-sided.
Arnel Casnova asserted the notion that he is a “friend”. But
the way he is treating the Camp John Hay negotiations with harassments and
bullying here and there, friendship can hardly be found.
The moment Casanova
inherited the BCDA throne, the City of Baguio received little to none of the
payments and shares which they are supposed to get as compared to the P256
million that they have received before Casanova assumed the throne.
BCDA’s
previous officials were dignified enough to share BCDA’s revenue to the local
government as stated by Condition number 10 of the 19 Conditionalities included
in Resolution number 362.
Unfortunately, our “friend” seems to be uneager to
show even half of the
dignity and decency that his BCDA predecessor have
displayed before. Due to some unidentified reasons, BCDA was unable to remit
the revenue coming from the lease rentals of Camp John Hay which is the city
government are supposed to get a portion of.
Despite of CJHDevCo.’s willingness
to share a table with BCDA officials to further ta9lk things out and to
possibly settle the dispute, BCDA and John Hay Management Corp. (JHMC) refused
to cooperate which resulted to an arbitration case with the Philippine Dispute
Resolution Center, Inc. After the arbitration has already came up with a
decision, BCDA and company are still hesitant to comply with the new set of
conditions much to the dismay of all the people rooting for a more diplomatic
way or resolving the said dispute. The time which was spent arguing and
attending court hearings are supposed to be used to plan new and innovative
ways to generate more revenues and boost the tourism for the welfare of the
City of Baguio. Camp John Hay is also supposed to be rehabilitated and fully developed
by now but due to the drama that BCDA have created, the project was
remorsefully left hanging. Also, many other projects were left hanging aside
from Camp John Hay. Forest Hill Cabins, Scout Hill, Sneider Building, Eco
Village Commercial Park, 2nd Phase of Camp John Hay Suites, Mile-Hi Town Center
and the Cordillera Theme Park to name a few.
To make things even worse, they
have also ruined the peaceful lives of the third party and lessees inside Camp
John Hay, most of them are retirees seeking for a safe and harmonious place to
stay for their remaining years of existence. All of that were deprived to them
by the mighty BCDA.
Just recently, some of the camp’s occupants have already lose their
hopes and appeared to have finally let go of their priced investment inside the
former American recreational area. An eviction order promulgated by the BCDA
melted their chances of retaining their properties, not until a 60-day
temporary restraining order (TRO) arrived.
Included in the list of lessees who
were ordered to vacate their properties are Joselito Cruz, the owner of a well
known perfume brand, prominent business groups like Ayala Land Inc. and some
other businessmen like Manuel Zamora who have filed a separate motion battling
the expulsion notice.