Domogan Vs Casanova

 Atty. Arnel Paciano D. Casanova, President and CEO of the Bases Conversion & Development Authority (BCDA) in an open letter to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan and the City Government of Baguio reiterated that the people of Baguio deserves a leadership that will put their interest ahead at all times. It is hoped that as public servants, we can both live up to this legal and moral duty. To do otherwise is to betray that public trust.  This is the danger with open letters though it can be an avenue for grandstanding. Would it have been easy to just set a meeting.



BCDA called on the called on the local government leaders to support the state authority in its battle with erstwhile developer Camp John Hay Development Corporation (CJH Devco) and stand for the people of Baguio City in its bid to collect almost P3.4-billion in rental arrears, in which the City of Baguio stands to receive 25-tpercent or P850-million. My question being they why did Baguio only receive 256 million from BCDA. What happened to the 594 million that wasn't remitted?

Casanova said, “Rather than an enemy, BCDA is an ally. As you may be well aware of, BCDA is party to an arbitration case with the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. for the collection of lease payments in the amount of at least P3,323,181,694.00 due from CJH Development Corporation (CJH DevCo). The City has a 25% stake in this amount, which share could have been used for the improvement and development of the City and the Cordillera Region.

 While that is true that the people of Baguio deserve a leadership that will put their interest ahead at all times. Leaders who will fight for and not succumb to unfair treatment like the utter disregard of some of the 19 conditions for the development of Camp John Hay as embodied in Resolution 362, s. 1994 that BCDA has blatanly violated.

In his letter  Casanova also acknowledged his agency is in arbitration proceedings with CJHDEVCO at the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. (PDRCI). What he omitted in his letter was that BCDA didn't want to go to the table and sit down to fix things. They begrudingly participated in arbitration until the agency was ordered by the Baguio regional trial court to do so. They are not fully cooperating with the arbitration because if they wanted to do it then why wait for the courts command.

BCDA’s is blowing their own horn and they are saying that theirgood governance include the increase in tourist arrivals, investments and job generation as well as sustained efforts for environmental protection with the zone. Businesses have also flourished in the JHSEZ, resulting in the generation of at least 3,473 new jobs for 2013.  Camp John Hay tourist arrivals were up 16% for 2013, business activity up by 30% and jobs increased by 56%. An impressive 92% of this jobs were for locals but BCDA should not get credit for this.