3 August

The Philippine government issued Executive Order No. 486, creating a special advisory committee for the development of Baguio City. The initiative was intended to guide the famous mountain city’s growth as an urban centre and tourist destination while protecting the natural landscape and environmental qualities that had made it one of the country’s best known cities. The order described Baguio as a major tourist attraction and the Summer Capital of the Philippines because of its refreshing climate.

The government said the city was deteriorating because of inadequate development planning, environmental pollution, continuing forest denudation and other damaging effects associated with industrial development. The order reflected concern that uncontrolled construction, commercial expansion and increasing human activity could permanently damage Baguio’s scenery and ecological character unless growth was directed through a coordinated urban plan.

The advisory body was to consist of a chairman, the mayor of Baguio City as co-chairman and three additional members appointed by the president. Its principal responsibility was to advise the president on matters relating to Baguio’s development and to prepare a plan for the city’s future as both an urban centre and a tourism destination. The committee was authorised to request assistance from any government department, bureau, office or agency and was required to submit periodic reports on its work.

Baguio already possessed an important planning heritage. A historical study published through the Philippine Institute for Development Studies’ research portal traces the city’s development from the hill station concept through early American town plans and the influential Burnham Plan. The August 1977 order represented another stage in that planning history because it formally connected future construction and economic development with environmental protection, forest conservation and the preservation of the city’s identity.

The event remains relevant to Asian real estate and urban history because Baguio faced a challenge that later became common across many rapidly growing tourism cities: how to accommodate hotels, housing, roads and commercial projects without destroying the natural assets that attract residents, visitors and investors in the first place.

August 3, 1977 therefore marked more than the creation of another government committee. It reflected an early recognition that sustainable property development requires coordinated land use, environmental safeguards and long term planning. A city’s real estate value depends not only on what is constructed, but also on the forests, open spaces, scenery and cultural character that development policies succeed in preserving.