BCBC starts renovating Media Camp
BAGUIO CITY – Rehabilitation of the Media Camp at the Burnham Park will start soon after the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC), city officials, and the Philippine Bamboo Foundation (PBF) last Dec. 12, held the groundbreaking ceremony at the area, and exactly a year after signing the memorandum of agreement adopting the picnic grove.
BCBC President Dionisio Dennis and past presidents Thomas Picana and Frank Cimatu joined PBF’s Edgardo Manda in the ceremony to start work to transform the area into a Japanese bamboo garden.
“Camp Peppot”, as the BCBC members call it, will be renovated this year with support from JTI.
Originally, 10 varieties of imported bamboo will be planted, with the area divided into four clusters to form a mini-Japanese garden.
Manda said the bamboo species that will be used in enhancing the Media Camp include bamboo multiplex and Phyllostachys aurea.
Manda said that when fully grown, these species can reduce or prevent soil erosion.
Twelve bambusa multiplex saplings were planted, but Manda said a total of 15 species and more than 900 will be planted around the Media Camp, many of which will be on the slopes to help prevent erosion, added Manda, who was already with his umbrella when the ceremonial planting was finished, along with JTI’s Community Investment Head Faith Mondejar.
“Sobra-sobrang blessing,” said Manda of the rain.
The groundbreaking ceremony was done exactly one year after the BCBC signed the memorandum of agreement with the city government. Led by Picana, who was then the president, he signed it with Mayor Benjamin Magalong and the City Environment and Parks Management, represented by the City Environment and Parks Management Office Assistant. Department Head Marivic Empizo.
The camp, named after media pioneer Jose “Peppot” Ilagan Jr., has been managed by the BCBC since 1990.
Once completed, it will also serve as a nature laboratory for students.
Meanwhile, the BCBC will hold a tree tending event at the Busol Watershed on Dec. 17, followed by a general assembly to discuss amendments to the club’s constitution. – BCBC release
