Baguio commits to green governance

BAGUIO City vowed to preserve its lush environment with programs focused on clean air, clean water, regreening program, and proper waste management.

“We have to sustain the aggressive implementation of our green governance initiatives, which are already in place to strike a balance between the city development and sustaining the good condition of the environment,” Mayor Mauricio Domogan said.

Green governance is a major flagship program of the Baguio's city administration to preserve the environment in partnership with the stakeholders.

This includes the city's multisectoral “Salaknib ti Waig” (save the river) project, which has been strengthened by active private sector participation and aims to clear the city's major river system and tributaries of

pollution caused by human activities in surrounding communities.

As for clean air, Baguio is one of three cities in the Philippines and five in Southeast Asia to pilot test the Clean Cities Asia Certification Program of global non-government group Clean Air Asia. The other two Philippine cities are Sta. Rosa in Laguna and Iloilo. The two other cities in Southeast Asia are Bali in Indonesia and Katmandu in Nepal.

Baguio is also pushing for the building of its own engineered sanitary landfill at the former Antamok open pit area owned by Benguet Corporation in Benguet. Once this is put in place, the city would be freed from the high expense of hauling its garbage to the Urdaneta landfill in Pangasinan.

Earlier, the city government said it had spent over P1.2 billion in a span of 10 years for hauling the city's garbage to its previous disposal facility, a private engineered sanitary landfill in Capaz, Tarlac.

Baguio's regreening project in its watershed areas goes on in an attempt to increase forest cover and thus, more groundwater and more stable water supply for the city.

Domogan rallies the private sector to keep on helping the city government in maintaining Baguio's pristine environment, the reason, foreign and local tourists continue to flock the mountain resort city.

Baguio was a Hall of Fame awardee in the Search for Clean and Green local governments, highly urbanized cities category, in 1995.