Senate Approves Baguio City Charter Bill On Final Reading
The bill proposing the revision of the Baguio City charter is now closer to becoming a law after it was approved by the Senate on its third and final reading on Monday, September 27.
Once passed into law, HB 8882 or the “Revised Charter of the City of Baguio” will see the historic Baguio City charter, first enacted in 1909, amended after over 100 years in order to cater to the present needs of the city and its people.
Baguio City Representative Mark Go, who is the primary author of the bill, welcomed the significant development and called this a “long overdue progress that upholds the welfare of the community that calls Baguio City it’s home.”
The proposed charter revision aspires to shape Baguio City as a resilient, sustainable, inclusive, and livable city, using innovative means to improve the quality of life while cultivating respect for cultural heritage and environmental protection.
The revised charter recognizes Baguio City as home of dynamic and diverse cultures and aims to foster inclusive citizenship and urban synergy, shaping a center of education, trade and tourism in consonance with the laws of nature and environment.
The charter will include measures consistent with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to ensure sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, and urban resilience, alongside ensuring environmental protection and management and sustainable production patterns.
It also aspires to attain efficiency in local governance, including institutionalizing urban-rural linkages, upholding general welfare and gender equality, and promoting basic goods and services such as dignified human settlement, adequate and safe water supply, liquid and solid wastes management, traffic and transportation management, sound housing, and disaster risk reduction management policies.
It also aims to preserve and restore the historical and heritage value of the City through existing boards and councils such as the Baguio City Creative Council, promote eco-cultural tourism and tourism-related microenterprises, ensure the sustenance of the City as an educational center of Northern Luzon, and develop and implement an investment portfolio and a progressive marketing strategy.
“Over 100 years have passed, and our city has undergone and witnessed various historical, social, and political upheavals over several decades. Baguio City’s social, political, and economical situations are drastically different today than they were a century ago, and we truly need a city charter that reflects our needs today and tomorrow”, Rep. Go said. ###
