Jack  Kintanar  Cariño

Peter Rey to implement BLIST program by yearend 2008

I usually make it a point to watch the local news on TV, particularly TV Patrol Northern Luzon, every time I have the chance to do so. A report by anchor Dhobie de Guzman headlined “BLIST program maisasakatuparan na” in this afternoon’s edition caught my attention. Mayor Peter Rey Bautista was caught on camera telling Dhobie that he plans to “implement the BLIST program hopefully before the year ends.”

This is either a deception designed to mislead the public or Peter Rey does not know what he is talking about. First of all, the BLIST plan is a conceptual framework, a development framework designed to decongest Baguio and to disperse development initiatives to the outlying municipalities of Benguet. Realizing that Baguio was designed by the renowned American architect Daniel Burnham for a population of only 25,000 and that it is now literally bursting at its seams with a population of almost 400,000, the urban planning experts from the European Union formulated a BLIST plan after the July 1990 earthquake.

This BLIST plan is now outdated and obviously has to be updated. The BLIST mayors can come together and have dinner regularly, they could heap praises on the BLIST concept, they can even agree to implement it before yearend. But I am betting my balls that nothing meaningful will happen.

When I ran for councilor last elections I advocated for the creation of a Metro Baguio Development Authority or MBDA to oversee the implementation of the BLIST concept and an updated BLIST plan. If there is no MBDA, all talk about BLIST will be hot air.

This MBDA will need a Republic Act or legislation by Congress (Lower House and Senate) to become a reality. I volunteered myself to the Baguio electorate to be their pointman for the creation of this MBDA. I told them that as councilor I would untiringly liaise between all stakeholders and decision makers to make the MBDA and an updated BLIST plan a reality.

Furthermore, I told them that 3 years may be too short to realize this but with a pointman who will pursue this vision, substantial steps in this direction can be achieved.

This is why I think that Peter Rey does not know what he is talking about when he says that he will "implement the BLIST program before yearend." He can go to the NEDA offices and get a copy of the BLIST plan which is available. He can implement parts of the plan like the completion of the circumferential roads. But all this will be band-aid solutions to the chronic congestion problems of Baguio.

Actually, private citizens especially the “captains of industry” of Baguio City, if they really care for Baguio and its citizens, can implement the BLIST concept without any MBDA. Peter Rey can lead by example by initiating the relocation of the University of Baguio campuses to the BLIST outlying areas.

(Note on the past elections: Friends told me that they thought I was talking over the heads of the Baguio electorate when I talked about BLIST and the MBDA. Voters are more concerned about immediate results, such as a pig to butcher.)