BAGUIO of my heart

8/10/2019 BAGUIO of my heart

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Baguio of my heart

WHEN the Spanish conquistador, Commandante de Galvey, first laid eyes on thatBenguet valley, he knelt in ae at the !eauty surrounding him" #he sun !egan to peep

shyly from !ehind !lue mountains, turning them into golden ridges and smudging ith

pink and peach and lavender the morning sky, siftly turning into a !rilliant !lue domeunmarred, save for a star, to stars, the crescent moon, all quickly fading" #he mists that

shrouded the valley like a ell$kept secret lifted suddenly, revealing lush samps and

pine stands, interspersed ith nely$planted rice fields turned shimmering silver sheets!y the morning sun" #he cold morning air as soaked ith the heady smell of pine"

Trinidad, the soldier on his knees muttered, remem!ering his ife" #he fog lifting as so

reminiscent of the time she first lifted her veil in the quiet, scented church, and flashed

him a smile%Groing up in the &'()s in Benguet*s +a #rinidad alley, and in Baguio City a fe

kilometers aay, it as not difficult to imagine that this as ho the valley got its name"

-s a child, each day as a lesson in the !ounty and ma.esty of nature/ travel to school

as a &0$ to 1)$minute .ourney through a road that coiled its ay !eteen mountains,fringed ith pine trees, hose needles splintered the sun*s rays into shimmering droplets

of light" #he mountains ere tall and mysterious, and in the rainy season, a thick fogshrouded the ay home and sent the .eepneys craling through the mountain pass ith

only their headlights cutting a ay through the hite orld" Summers !urnt the mountain

grass !ron and the sky the !rightest shade of !lue" But it as in the cold season henthe mountains !urst aflame ith color2dotted ith golden sunfloers and hite

Benguet lilies"

#raveling donhill along 3agsaysay -venue, toard the intersection ith Bokakan

4oad here a hideous flyover no stands, 5ue6on Hill as a dappled yello mountainof sunfloers a!loom" -nd, at the stretch !eteen 7m" 8 and Bell church, the Balili

4iver floed, first gently, then it gushing suddenly don three cascades" 9n the stormyseason, the aters here thundered"#oday that same portion of the river hardly e:ists" 9t struggles sluggishly, choked !y silt,

and trash, oil from the motor repair shops surrounding it, and yes, human e:crement/

Baguio City has only one seerage system, and most city esta!lishments tap theirseerage lines instead into the drainage system, hich flos into the Balili 4iver" Balili

is no called the ;toilet !ol of Baguio City,< and its aters, hich sell during storms,

no longer sirl clear, !ut are murky and smell so strongly of shit"

9= 9 had knon as a child hat 9 learned later through study that the !iodiversity of the

Cordillera ranges is not as rich as that of the lolands >due mainly to the chemical

e:creted !y the endemic Benguet pine that kills its undergroth?, 9 ould not have!elieved it" Certainly, there ere no .ungles in my childhood, !ut everyhere 9 ent, 9

as still filled ith the !ounty of nature" 4ight !eside our elementary school spraled

the hospital grounds of the Notre @ame de +ourdes hospital, and into this secret gardenmy classmates and 9 ould creep at lunch !reak, clutching our baons" >Slo$paced

Baguio nursed a baonculture !ack then?" #here, e ould eat and play amid the daisies,

carnations, la6y$eyed susans, golden rods and chrysanthemums planted so carefully !y

the Belgian missionaries, careful to keep aay from the !ees" -n a!undance of !ees and


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!utterflies sarmed around us as e dug holes in the dark earth ith !ar!ecue sticks to

search for !ugs and earthorms, snails and spiders, that pollination and other secrets of

nature ere never difficult for us to understandA these concepts merely captured therealities around us"

-nd hen e ould tire of this spot, there ere alays many other places in the city/ the

terraces !ordering hat as once the St" +ouis Girls* High School and overlooking-ssumption 4oad ere not fenced then as they are no, and they alays !egged to !e

clim!ed" #he grounds of the Baguio Cathedral ere vast and laid ith trees and grassy

spots, and the site of the orta aga mall today as then a ooded hill that !eckoned tous" -nd there ere other places, too/ Burnham ark, Sunshine ark and Camp ohn Hay

2although that as reserved for the truly adventurous among us, and for longer

e:plorations on eekends"

3DCH of Baguio*s past natural !eauty is alive only in my memory, and 9 am not an old

oman"

#oering pine stands and grassy hills have !een chased aay !y the city*s relentless

drive toards ;development,< that these can only !e found in pockets2in the parks, andtoard the no posh areas of South @rive, Baguio Country Clu!, ohn Hay, 3ansion

House"#o !uild the city*s !iggest mall, ironically named S3 ines, some 10) century$old pine

trees had to !e chopped don, and although Baguio people ere opposed to this, !oth the

city government and the @EN4 granted a cutting permit to the developer"Speaking of trees, Christmases of my childhood ere heralded, not !y the Christmas

decorations of malls and shops, !ut !y the dressing and lighting up of to giant pine trees

that faced each other from the top and !ottom of Session 4oad" But in an act .ust as

!efuddled as his name, the former mayorLabo chopped off the century$old tree atSession*s top and replaced it, ridiculously, ith a cement tree, signaling the !eginning of

the end for Baguio as 9 kne it"

es, there are still pine trees in the city today, !ut a close look ill sho them to !echoked and struggling" #he Benguet pine*s trunk is a deep mahogany !ron, and its

needles a !rilliant emerald green, !ut tourists and visitors are apt to think that !oth trunk

and needles are a shade darker/ the trees that remain in the city*s center are !lackened !ysoot, !oth at their trunks and in their undernourished !ranches"

9n the past three decades, too, the city has carried out a !i6arre o!session ith

construction2a house stands in almost every single parcel of Baguio land, many poorly

constructed, many erected even in geologically ha6ardous areas like the sinking CrystalCave lands" Fverlapping land claims is the city*s main legal pro!lem, so much so, that if

the land areas contained in titles, ta: declarations and other tenurial documents ere

merely added up, the total land area ould e:ceed !y more than tenfold the actual landarea of Baguio" #he mountains close to the city are !eehives, ith houses croding each

other out, and, in poorer communities here the houses are sha!!ier paint a truly ghastly

sight" 9t is only ith the merciful cover of darkness that the assault on the senses ceases"-s darkness falls, thousands of houses light up, and the lights tinkle in the

mountainsides like fireflies, igniting the memory of the Baguio that once as"


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;Bursting at the seams< is ho !oth local .ournalists and city officials have often

descri!ed Baguio*s overcrodingA although hat the city government is actually doing to

address this pressing pro!lem remains a mystery"9n the years that it took for me to gro into an adult, the population has quadrupled and is

still groing at dou!le the country*s population groth rate" #here ere some ),)))

people in Baguio hen 9 as groing up, today there are some )),))), and in the ne:tfive years, if things do not change drastically, there ill !e close to 8)),)))2most of

these squee6ed together in the main parts of the city that as !uild !y the turn$of$the

century -mericans for only ),)))"-nd, if figures don*t mean anything to you, consider the press of the crods at the

market, along 3agsaysay 4oad, or on the city*s main road, Session"

With all these people squee6ed into this city, the resources, too, are strained to their limit"

#here is hardly any part of the city here ater flos from the taps dailyA ater rationinghas !een a part of the lives of Baguio deni6ens for the past &0 years, and in the summer,

taps are apt to !e dry for eeks on end"

Both ater delivery companies and developers vie ith the Baguio ater district and

!uilt their on pumps" Dnregulated, ater pumps are springing up all over the city,stressing the underground ater sources" With squatter colonies invading Baguio*s fe

remaining atersheds, a severe ater crisis is .ust around the corner"Fpen dumping and the !urning of gar!age, on top of the city*s lack of a seerage

systems, have caused the incidence of amoe!iasis, typhoid and other ater$!orne diseases

2especially among children2to spiral"#raffic .ams2unheard of in my childhood2are everyday Baguio occurrences today"

-nd, !ecause most of the city*s vehicles are diesel$!urning trucks, .eepneys and second$

hand cars, air pollution is a groing pro!lem >that the city government first reacted to

ith denial?" #he unique meteorological conditions in Baguio, here there are no sea!ree6es to seep aay !ad air, only orsen this"

Enjoy it while it lasts, my prophetic older !rother said of the pine$scented air in one of

our early morning e:cursions to the top of a hill overlooking the city hen 9 as near myteens" -nd he pointed out to me a groing cloud of ha6e that hung over the city 2even

then"

He as right" #oday, the scent of pine has !een replaced !y the persistent odor of diesel"#he city has lost much of its unique !eauty" -nd ith that loss has come the loss of its

soul"

#HE Baguio City of my youth as really a slo and reflective ton here people kneeach other and ent a!out leisurely ith their lives" #oday, ith the traffic and the

crods, time itself seems to have sped up" But as a child, there alays seemed to !e so

much time, a one$hour lunch !reak as an eternity of time to play"#he slo pace of life, the cool climate and the gentleness of the terrain >compared to the

harsher and steeper landscapes of the provinces further north and deeper into the

Cordillera ranges? spaned, 9 !elieve, a quiet, unassuming and reflective people, ho are!y and large, peaceful"

#he 9!aloi people, the original inha!itants of 7afagay2that turn$of$the$century

rancheria of a!out 1) houses on hich Baguio City no stands2are knon, even until

no, to !e reticent and peace$loving" Even the early 9locano and 7ankanaey settlers to


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the city adopted this quiet nature" +iving amid !ounty and !eauty, the Baguio people

seemed to kno their hum!le place in this aesome universe"

BD# perhaps it is this very timidity of its people that has caused the city its undoing"

#he 9!alois are knon to !e the most accommodating among the Cordilleran tri!es, and

the least illing to go to ar over their land and resources >unlike tri!es along Chicoriver ho stopped their river from !eing dammed in the &')s? "

#his openness as good in some ays/ it alloed the !lending of -merican heritage,

Cordillera and 9locano cultures into a distinct Baguio culture" But in other ays, timidityspelled disaster for the 9!aloi2their history is fraught ith displacement/ -merican

mining companies esta!lished a the turn of the 1)thcentury !rought roads and .o!s, !ut

hen Benguet Corporation closed don in the &'')s, the 9!aloi and 7ankanaey miners

ere the first to lose their .o!s and their lands ere left scarred" #he 9!alois of Bokodsacrificed their rice fields to the rising aters of the -m!uklao @am to help light the

nation, !ut this caused them to scatter to hostile ;homesteads< in alaan, here they

ere assaulted !y the heat, the unfamiliar loland .ungle and malaria mosquitos, or in

Nueva iscaya, here they lived in fear of their more ar$like neigh!ors"Baguio City itself has ceased to !e the home of the 9!aloi people" #he only city in the

Cordillera region, it has dran in the past 0) years, migrants from all Cordilleranprovinces, and the loland provinces of angasinan and +a Dnion, forcing the solitude$

seeking 9!alois out of its center" -s a friend of mine from 3ountain rovince o!served,

;sa gilid-gilid na lang ng Baguio and mga Ibaloi"With the loss of their old spaces, the old men have taken to holding their morningsessions at!cDonald"s Session oad, looking out$of$place as they drink coffee from

styrofoam cups"?

Bonding for the younger men happened at night" Bundled against the cold ith leather

.ackets, denims, scarves, mufflers and !onnets, the younger men met at folk houses like


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#ire$laceor Cosy %oo&, here folk and country music ere staples" >#here as only one

disco at the Hyatt #erraces Baguio, and this as patroni6ed mainly !y tourists?" #he

omen in cardigans and knitted shals made felloship as they stitched, knitted orcroqueted and aited for their children to come out of school >for Baguio of old as

never ayaya culture?"

#he days !ack then strolled at the leisurely pace, and at J/)) p"m", even came to acomplete stop" - siren ould go off, and everyone ould stop to listen to Bach*s '(esu

)oy of !an"s Desiring*+ folloed !y the -ngelus2all played on a loud speaker from the

Baguio Cathedral and over the city*s only radio station"Cars ould stop in the middle of the road, children ould stop their play, cash registers

ould stop clinking, office orkers ould stop alking home, the entire city ould grind

to a halt"

erhaps this as the secret of Baguio*s charm in the olden days" -fter the uly &'')earthquake, an o!sessive rush to re!uilt the devastated city ensued, led to hat old

residents say as its rabid de,elo$ment 9t as also in this hurry that the angelus

tradition as lost"

=or yes, Baguio City as once soulful/ #hat Baguio people of old chose to stop for a feminutes every single day to reflect or pray must !e the reason hy Baguio as such a

soulful city then" -nd consequently, a humane one"

9 H-E never taken a look at the income distri!ution patterns of Baguio residentsthrough the years, and hile there must have !een inequalities !ack then, they ere not

as glaring as they are today, or they ere even then in other cities of the orld"

-t the private school 9 ent to for elementary, my classmates ere a ca! driver*s

daughter, market vendors* children, and the daughter of the ealthy apanese$9!aloi!usiness family, the.amadas* ho earned their millions from running the city*s only

nespaper for decades" Still, at inter$school matches, e ere often !eaten !y the kids at

+uc!an Elementary School, Baguio Central School, or any of the other pu!lic schools inthe city" Baguio then as im!ued ith a general spirit of equality, here life asn*t too

hard if one as illing to ork hard"

#here have alays !een old 9gorot men and omen !egging in the city streets, !ut, asmost Baguio people kno, they are not landless !ack home or homeless even in the city"

Everyone !ack then, it seemed, had a home and a decent means to make a living, that the

student prostitution that makes Baguio universities famous today as truly

uncharacteristic !ack then"But as 9 gre, so did the num!er of families living on the street >mostly Bad.ao families

or families from other parts of ar$torn 3indanao? and the ranks of cra6y people left to

fend for themselves"Working children have alays !een a part of the Cordilleran life, and even !ack then

there ere kids ho sold nespapers in the morning, sold vegeta!les at the market at

night, or orked as shoe$shine !oys" But more often than not, they ere a!le to finishschool and to eat three square meals a day"

#hat Baguio as less stratified then is most clearly seen in the changing use of its pu!lic

spaces, hich ere once open to !oth rich and poor"


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No, as the city commerciali6es rapidly, pu!lic spaces are the first to dra the lines

!eteen the haves and have$nots, ith Camp ohn Hay one site no snatched aay from

the hum!le"-s children, my classmates and 9 ould often spend eekends at ohn Hay*s White #rail,

going in and out of the camp ith ease" +oly government employees and school

teachers took their families on picnics on the ohn Hay grounds, and young lovers foundsecluded places to smooch"

#oday, only high$end tourists >ohn Hay 3anor charges some ,)))" a night for a single

or dou!le room? and government officials frequent the camp*s golf course, and even thepicnic ta!les are for rent"

o!s have not !een a!le to keep pace ith the rapidly groing num!ers of people, so the

num!ers of hakers, vendors and people in Baguio*s informal sector have sollen" But

there is only so much one can sell in a limited economy" So the army of undernourishedchildren has also sollen, and so too that of out$of$school youths, tambays, drunks and

petty thieves"

Baguio, 9 sear, used to !e a safe place hen 9 as a child" Sure, there ere youthful

gangs like the/antrancoandBang&ahangangs ho fought their petty mari.uana ars!ack then, !ut they generally kept to themselves and kept the omen and children out of

their conflicts"#oday, petty crimes are in an all$time high >hoever the city police ould like to deny

this?, and they spare no one" #his year alone, my daughter and 9, ho live alone in

Baguio, have endured three near$!reak ins into our sparsely$furnished apartment found inthe poorer quarters of the city"

Sha!u use in Baguio has gron over the years, and a recent study even claimed that the

ma.ority of students to flock to this university ton have tried it"

Worse, violent crimes no e:ist in this city" Fne early evening early this year, a man asshot in the head at Burnham ark, in full vie of parkgoers" Weeks after, the !ody of

another dead man as found at that same park" -nd that same month, another !ody as

found !ehind a popular university" - fe eeks !ack, to omen tourists ere hogtiedto flamma!le mattresses and !urned to death in their condotel close to #eacher*s Camp2

the orse crime so far that has happened in the city*s recent history" #he safe and sane

city of my childhood is truly gone"Bursting at the seams, ith its social fa!ric ripped apart and its charm quickly fading,

there seems to !e hope only for the city*s rabid de,elo$ers"

4ecently, 9 glimpsed a market study that read/ ;9mmigration to Baguio makes the

population 6oom up, and !ased on survey, the current mortality rate is around &,)) perannum, hich increases !y &)K to 1)K yearly" #his and the lack of !urial sites gave

LLLL@evelopment Corporation the idea of a memorial park in the scenic spot of

+oakan%

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BAGUIO of my heart