DBP funds Baguio City market upgrade

The city government plans to demolish the old Magsaysay building early next year and convert it into a temporary open parking area.

The city government approved the master development plan of the Baguio City public market that will make the city’s market facility one of the best public markets in Southeast Asia. Roman Prospero

BAGUIO CITY — The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is extending up to P10 billion in loans to upgrade the Baguio City public market and other high-impact development projects helping achieve the present administration’s goal of creating a better Baguio in the next three years.

The city government is also studying its options and whether to bid out the consultancy for the market development project or work on a design-and-build concept themselves and implement the multi-billion market development project.

Earlier, the city government approved the master development plan of the Baguio City public market that will make the city’s market facility one of the best public markets in Southeast Asia.

The proposed construction site of state-of-the-art and green market buildings include strategic areas in the city as the Magsaysay area, main market structure, Hilltop and Kayang offices

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the city is also exploring the possibility of a public-private partnership (PPP) or avail of the offered soft loan from the government bank to modernize the city public market, the show window of the country’s undisputed Summer Capital.

Initially, the city government plans to demolish the old Magsaysay building early next year and convert it into a temporary open parking area while implementing the proposed market modernization project that will enhance the state of the city’s main market facility.

The city government was supposed to develop the public market in 1996 through the enactment of Ordinance 038 that prescribed the guidelines for the modernization of the city market and awarded of the project to Uniwide Sales and Realty Development Corporation.

However, the project stalled after a group of market vendors questioned the constitutionality of the ordinance and the validity of the market development contract.

The Supreme Court would eventually declare the ordinance constitutional and the award of the contract to Uniwide as valid several years ago.

The city government already notified Uniwide the market development contract it entered into over two decades ago had been terminated with the company’s dissolution.