Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Council summons parties in pine stand controversy By Rimaliza Opiña
NO ONE is sure whether there are plans to cut down hundreds of pine trees at the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) lot adjacent to the Baguio Convention Center (BCC) and the City Council is bent on finding the real score.
The council invited representatives of the GSIS, SM Investments Corporation (Smic) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to attend one of its future sessions in order to clear things up and end all speculations.
Councilors Nicasio Palaganas and Rocky Thomas Balisong said representatives of the three parties should be invited to clarify plans regarding the pine stand surrounded by the Court of Appeals (CA), BCC, University of the Philippines (UP)-Baguio, and Supreme Court (SC).
Owned by the GSIS, Palaganas said the pending proposals at the City Council, all aimed at stopping construction there if any might be misinterpreted as an encroachment of an owner's right to do what he wants with his property.
Balisong, on the other hand, said city officials must know first hand what the agreement is between SM and GSIS over the area.
Smic, GSIS and the DENR are scheduled to appear during the council's next regular session on May 19.
Speculation that Smic is planning to construct either a hotel or condominium over the area arose when Councilor Richard Cariño told his colleagues of a survey team he noticed at the area sometime during the Holy Week. It later turned out that the survey team was actually conducting a soil test analysis.
Since then, the councilors have tried to outdo each other in calling on Smic and the GSIS to spare the pine stand, it being one of the remaining "lungs" of the city's central business district.
