Burnham Park facelift to push through

THE PROPOSED improvement for Burnham Park will go on assured Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) chief operating officer Pocholo Paragas.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong, during a meeting with city managers recently bared the TIEZA chief assured the city the P480-million initially earmarked by the public corporation for Baguio’s “pride of place” remains on top of TIEZA’s list, “once funds become available.”

TIEZA is the implementing arm of the Department of Tourism (DOT), which continues functions formerly exercised by the Philippine Tourism Authority, including development of tourism infrastructure projects.

Earlier, the city submitted plans for the uplift of the park to TIEZA as basis for release of promised funds.

The funding support, later immortalized in an agreement between the DOT and the city, however became part of the P12billion TIEZA allocation realigned for the national government’s Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) operations, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat later revealed.

Magalong meanwhile said, despite setbacks, the city continues with the introduction of programmed projects at the park, as part of efforts to maintain, if not uplift the same.

For his part, City Administrator Bonifacio dela Peña disclosed, about 80-percent of the plans drafted by the city’s Technical Working Group ( TWG) were included in the final plans for the park submitted to TIEZA.

Burnham Park is Baguio’s centerpiece park, the city being built around it in a design laid down by American urban planner and architect Daniel Burnham.