Baguio councilors are asking the Boy Scout of the Philippines in toning down its construction at its property along Gov Pack that will potentially cover the Baden Powel building.
Councilor Vladimir Cayabas in filing the resolution last month said the ongoing construction may obstruct the historic three story wooden structure now used as an inn.
In Resolution 64, which was unanimously approved during the city council meeting on February 1, asked the BSP “to consider a design that supplements the grandeur of the historic building and to make sure that it protects and preserves the historical marker.”
IN filing the resolution, Cayabas took note of the building’s importance to Baguio and the Philippines as well.
The building was the venue of the first Philippine Commission from April 22 to June 11 of 1904 and from which the name of Session Road was based.
He noted: “This was also the first time Baguio City was hailed the Summer Capital of the Philippines.”
While its owners have torn down the wooden structure at its front that used to house a gotohan and computer shops upstairs, it has now started constructed using steel girders that “will potentially cover, obstruct and diminish the historic Baden Powell Hall area to obscurity;…”
The resolution added the Baden Powell Hall, an important structure in the city, “needs to be preserved, protected and be saved from destruction, alteration, obstruction or anything that will diminish its prowess and value.”
The building, the city council chair on education, history and creativity, “is a unique marker that is associated with commemorative events, significant achievements that collectively made the City of Baguio truly the Summer Capital of the Philippines, the Education center of the North and a Creative City.”