By ASHZEL HACHERO

BAGUIO CITY – The government is setting aside P82 million to redevelop the 100-year old Baguio Teachers Camp.

The camp, ghosts or no ghosts, has been a favorite destination in the country’s summer capital.

Department of Education assistant secretary Jonathan Malaya, who is also the head of the Special Task Force assigned to oversee conservation at the BTC, said that DepEd has allotted P50-million in its 2006 Supplemental budget to the restoration. The camp will also chip P32-million from its annual revenue for the restoration project.

At present, the camp receives a yearly subsidy of P10-million from DepEd for operations. It also has an annual revenue of more or less P12 million, according to Malaya.

He said that the camp is open to the public and that by May 10, an amphitheatre, a museum, a souvenir shop, small-scale bookstore, business center, a coffee shop and a food shop that will sell organic goods will be ready.

The camp’s landscaping will also be improved with more flowering shrubs planted.

The Teachers Camp marked its centennial anniversary last April 6.

The camp started as a series of tents operating as training areas for the American Thomasites, the pioneering teachers who founded the country’s public school system, to a 23-hectare land with permanent lodgings such as halls and cottages. The camp is home to a number of offices including the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP), the training arm of the Department of Education (DepED).

Education secretary Jesli Lapus has directed the creation of a master plan that will make the BTC an ideal training and vacation haven for educators, students, government employees and the public.

""Our vision is to upgrade the facilities or the camp, make it 1st class, without altering its character and status as an academic center and a heritage site of the country,’’ he added.

He said the DepEd’s Visit Teachers’ Camp Year campaign is expected to draw in tourists, increase occupancy, and dispel the impression that the camp is only for the teachers.

"Our long term goal here is to make BTC income-generating and self-sustaining," said Malaya.