New set of city officials briefed on state of local governance

“Baguio’s journey is one of continuous growth and transformation. Similar to all urban areas, our city confronts a multitude of ongoing challenges, each presenting complexity and requiring concerted efforts for resolution.”

Thus, declared City Mayor’s Office chief of staff Samantha Jean Hamada in her presentation of the State of Local Governance Report at the regular Executive-Legislative meeting, July 14, at City Hall to brief the Summer Capital’s new set of officials and provide a refresher to other public servants.

She said that based on a NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) now DEPDev (Department of Economy, Planning, and Development) study, the city has already exceeded its carrying capacity which is the maximum number of people who can be supported by the city’s natural resources. Baguio also faces several institutional challenges such as understaffing; poor infrastructure like unfinished classrooms and farm-to-market roads to an overstretched police-to population ratio; public awareness and behavioral gaps especially in health services, civil registration, disaster preparedness, and environmental compliance, that highlight the urgent need for deeper community engagement.

Fiscal bottlenecks like short project timelines from national downloads, overlapping priorities, and local fund underutilization delay both development and delivery; gaps in inter-agency/office coordination and implementation challenges; and Environmental stress remains high—from absence of the city’s own final waste disposal facility, to the need for better water, land, and energy management—calling for both behavioral shifts and policy innovation.

To address these challenges, the city is guided by its strategic direction which has 3 essential components: Sustainability, Resiliency, and Innovation, Hamada said.

After 8 months of collaboration with various urban sectors and all barangays, she said the city already has its new vision: “Baguio 2043: A Livable, Inclusive, and Creative City.”

Livability signifies a commitment to making Baguio a place where residents enjoy a high quality of life; Inclusivity means the city is committed to ensuring that all residents, regardless of their backgrounds, have equal access to opportunities and services; while creativity suggests a desire for the city to be a hub of artistic and cultural expression, fostering innovation, and supporting the creative industries.

“The year 2043 conveys that the vision is about overcoming the projected onset of irreversible urban decay by 2043 if we do not do anything to stop it now,” Hamada stressed. – Gaby B. Keith