BAGUIO CITY August 08 – The Second Division of the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the previous rulings of the Court of Appeals (CA that upheld the decision of a lower court dismissing the petition of the Hilltop Market Fish Vendors Association against the local government against the closure of the Rillera building, popularly known as the fish section of the market vendors, for lack of merit.

In an 11-page decision signed by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio for the division dated July 20, 2017, the SC denied the petition for review filed by the association because in the contract of lease, one of the parties binds himself to give to another the enjoyment or use of a thing or a price certain and for a period which may be definite or indefinite and being a consensual contract, a lease is perfected at the moment there is a meeting of the minds upon the thing and the cost or consideration which are to constitute the contract and thereafter, the lessor is obliged to deliver that thing which is the object of the contract in such a condition as to render it for the use intended, and the lessee is obliged to use the thing is a diligent father of a family, devoting it to the use stipulated or that which may be inferred from the thing leased.

BAGUIO CITY – The Dept. of Science and Technology is now accepting applications to the DOST-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) Undergraduate Scholarship program for Academic Year 2018-2019.

DOST Cordillera Regional Director Victor Mariano, in a letter to Mayor Mauricio Domogan, said the scholarship program is open to the non-Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students who belong to the upper top five percent of the graduating class.

Baguio city August 08 – Some P180 million was earmarked by the Department of Public works and Highways (DPWH) for the proposed repair had rehabilitation of the city-owned Baguio Convention Center under the agency's 2018 national building program which forms part of the national expenditure program.

In her letter dated July 31, 2017 to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, DPWH-CAR regional director Nerie D. Bueno requested the local government for a coordination meeting to discuss the preparation of detailed plans and the conduct of pre-detailed engineering activities for the identified project that was provided the required funding requirement by the agency in next year's budget.

BAGUIO CITY – The city veterinary office (CVO) under Dr. Brigit Piok has inspected a total of 273,980 heads of animals and passed for slaughter in the first semester of 2017 including 4,996 tons of meat that was deemed fit for human consumption.

Her office also found 1,345 kilograms of meat unfit for human consumption that were immediately confiscated, condemned and properly disposed of.

BAGUIO CITY – The city veterinary office (CVO), in partnership with other government and non-government agencies, has vaccinated 30,787 out of 50,000 dogs in the city and neutered 97 dogs and cats in the first semester of this year

City veterinarian Brigit Piok said 1,229 stray dogs were impounded during the period and with the help of barangays, the dog traps given them by her office yielded 83 dogs impounded.

BAGUIO CITY August 08 – The Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) assured the local government that electric poles that are affected by the implementation of government infrastructure projects will be immediately relocated to safer places the soonest after the public works department and the energy department issued a joint circular to address the perennial problem of unattended poles affected by road and other infrastructure projects.

BENECO general manager Gerardo P. Verzosa informed the members of the City Council in last Monday's regular session that there is no more problem in the requests for transfer of electric poles that are affected by government infrastructure projects because the DPWH-DOE joint circular guaranteed the payment of the labour and materials that will be incurred by the cooperative in the transfer of its electric poles to safer places.

BAGUIO CITY August 08 – The proponent of the Baguio Convention Center design contest will still push through as planned even if the proposed ordinance authorizing the charging of the amount of P2.35 million from the non-office account of the 2017 annual budget for the said purpose was withdrawn during the local legislative body's regular session last Monday.

Councilor Maria Mylene Victoria G. Yaranon, author of the proposed ordinance, said she was constrained to withdraw her proposal because she was already exasperated and tired of justifying the merits of the proposal, especially to some local legislators who refuse to think out of the boxes and those who try to project themselves as working for the welfare of the people when in fact, they are not doing so.