Areas in Baguio that are Prone to Geo Hazards: Understanding Risks and Building Resilience

The city of pines with its hilly terrain, panoramic mountainscape, and beautiful native people. No one would think that this mountain resort city would have some geological hazards.

Baguio City is considered a small town with its significant developments in the northern part and spreading out. Every Filipino I know that has come to Baguio, and even foreigners would like to have a piece of real estate property here. Thus, making the real estate property here in the Highlands in demand and consistently high.

I got most of the information on my blog content in the presentation slides of Engr. Ralph C. Pablo, DPA, En. P. Regional Executive Director DENR (the year 2019). He talked about the First-Ever Land Summit in Baguio City held in Pedro Dumol Hall BENECO South Drive.

He showed the DENR’s data where most of the significant landslide-affected areas were on his presentation slides. Like sinkholes, fault lines, and other geological hazards in Baguio City will be tackled here. I’ll only focus on my clients’ 3 most-asked questions when I show them around for ocular inspections of properties around Baguio.

Most of the time, my clients would ask,

Is that a landslide-prone area?

Is that place near the fault line?

I don’t like that place because they said it has lots of sinkholes, am I right?

Lastly, they would ask me:

Can you recommend an area that is safe from everything? (Which, in my opinion, nobody in the Philippines is safe if there’s an earthquake.)

Disclaimer:

First of all, I am sharing this information not to discourage or defame these areas of Baguio but to inform the public, for everyone to be aware if they would like to buy or invest in a property affected area in Baguio.

As we know, if these geological hazard events take effect, they will cause damage to real estate properties, which will be in the 7 to 10 figures lost. Baguio City has only 5,752.0056 hectares of land, and the only alienable disposable area is 2,920.3738 hectares, making Baguio’s titled lands more scarce.

That is why I will shamelessly plugin on this blog that if you are planning to sell your titled property in Baguio or BLISTT area, then contact me. But note that even these areas of Baguio are prone to this hazard. People don’t mind building their houses because of the scarcity of land. Also, regulations by the government are not much implemented.

Geologic Map of Baguio

Landslide Susceptibility Map

“According to the MGB, up to 80 percent of the country’s total land area is landslide-prone, making the country the fourth most exposed to landslide risk, after Indonesia, India, and China.  The Cordillera region has the highest risk of landslides in the Philippines.”

-source https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/philippines-landslide-risk-increasing

As a result, you really need a local professional realtor or geodetic engineer for this matter. To know the area in Baguio you are prospecting is safe from landslides and other geological hazards. So I am now going to share with you the barangays that are affected by these geological hazards.

Fault Line in Baguio

List of Affected Barangays

-Loakan Proper
-Loakan Liwanag
-Greenwater Village
-South Drive
-Cabinet Hill-Teacher’s Camp
-Dagsian, Upper
-Scout Barrio
-Fort Del Pilar (PMA)
-Sanitary Camp, North
-Bayan Park West (Leonila Hill)

Sinkholes in Baguio

List of Affected Barangays

-Asin Road
-Bakakeng Central
-Dominican Hill Mirador
-Dontogan GreenValley
-Fairview Village
-Irisan
-Lourdes Subdivision Extension
-Lourdes Subdivision, Lower
-Lourdes Subdivision, Proper
-Middle Quezon Hill Subdivision
-Pinget
-Pinsao Pilot Project
-Pinsao Proper
-Quezon Hill Proper
-Quezon Hill, Upper
-Rock Quarry, Lower
-Rock Quarry, Middle
-San Luis Village
-San Roque Village
-Santo Tomas Proper
-Victoria Village

Takeaway

Baguio City is a safe home for everyone; you only need to do due diligence and double-check everything if you want to protect your life and assets. Hence, you should get professional experts’ opinions on properties that you are prospecting. Therefore, it does not mean that the barangay community that was mentioned above is unsafe or inhabitable.

It is already each person’s discretion if they want to live in that place because of preference and other factors. I hope this personal blog of mine helps you in some way.