Burnham Lake walkway being taken apart just 2 weeks after reopening

Lake reopened after a year-long ₱480M rehabilitation.

Parts of the Burnham Lake walkway in Baguio City were overhauled just two weeks after the lake reopened to the public, following a year-long rehabilitation project costing ₱480 million.

The walkway surrounding Burnham Lake in Baguio’s famed public park was seen being taken apart on September 14.

Local writer Daniel Ted Fernando, who runs The Cordilleran Sun blog, first spotted the deteriorating boardwalk. The walkway’s wooden boards had been removed, exposing rusted metal framing and patchy concrete littered with puddles and debris.

Days earlier, Facebook user JV Valdez spotted bulges in parts of the walkway. Images uploaded on September 11 show wooden boards curving upwards and creating an uneven surface, potentially due to heat absorption and pressure.

Burnham Lake was reopened to the public on September 1, after closing in October 2025 for an 11-month renovation.

New additions to the four-hectare man-made lake include the wooden boardwalk, concrete benches, and new boat units for tourists to rent.

The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) approved ₱480 million for the rehabilitation of Burnham Park overall, with ₱150 million earmarked for the lake.

In August, a group of local advocates criticized the rehabilitation plan for supposedly neglecting the lake’s ecological health. They wrote an open letter to Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, as reported by The Philippine Star.

The group said current plans lacked a proper lake bed management system and measures to sustain existing aquatic life.

Without continuous water circulation, the group warned, Burnham Lake risked reverting to its pre-rehab state, with stagnant water, foul odor, and algae blooms.

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