Baguio is for everyone

THE BAGUIO Cathedral grounds then. Today, the entrance steps have given way to a narrow driveway and a commercial establishment at the left side.

Baguio is a popular destination for Filipinos. Many sign up for professional and student seminars and conferences if the venue is Baguio. Families go up to Baguio for long holidays. A number of newlywed couples spend their honeymoon in Baguio.

My siblings and I have fond memories of beautiful summer vacations spent in our uncle’s house in Baguio. Many people now share the nostalgia for the scent of pine trees even as you start the ascent on Kennon Road, the very pleasant cool weather, the cleanliness and orderliness then in Baguio.

Like most cities, Baguio is a victim of our urban era. Crass materialism, the culprit in environmental and cultural degradation has come upon us. Everyone wants to move to the city to be at the center of opportunity to be able to afford our ever-growing human needs. A highly materialistic society dictates to us what we need to have, and we get the cue from the city.

Globalization has overtaken individual city cultures. Global commercial trends and brands find inroads to where the people want to be. The end result is, Baguio will soon look not much different from Cubao. Watch the visual pollution down Session Road.

The beauty and charm of the rich traditional culture of Baguio came from the highlands Cordillera, and the lowlands Ilocano cultures. Added to this was the strong influence of American presence last century on cleanliness and orderliness.

Every city government faces the challenge to balance two distinct approaches to preserve the economic, environmental and cultural well-being of its people. On one hand, it has to study market and technological answers to climate change like using cleaner fuels and promoting energy efficiency. On the other hand, the city must synergize its resources to prevent development that is biased in favor of middle to high economic classes over the urban poor.

The city cannot afford to allow overdevelopment where local traditional cultures are left to get lost in the push for commercialization. It must resist aggressive and uncoordinated efforts for global practices that wipe away what makes it different from other cities. A city is like a person who needs to guard his individuality.

Enlightened, engaged citizenry

Baguio must identify the main points of its history and culture and its present attractions. Is it the blessings received from Nature, the people’s long revered center of worship, the Cathedral, its academic centers, the parks and main streets and public market, or is it the mall and call center?

The growth of the city is also a mirror of its political economy. Here we need an enlightened and engaged citizenry.  The city must revive itself from within.

Cultural sustainability

It is most interesting to stay in a hotel whose architecture and ambience tells you which city you are in. The catch phrase of sustainability is not without boundaries. The homogenization of urban trends must not encroach into tradition and way of living that we respectfully hand over from our forebears to the next generations.

The people of the city must study and analyze intelligently their peculiarities and environmental characteristics before they allow an overlay of modern urban practices to grow over them.

The city’s individual characteristics and traditions must be integral in the trajectory of green future development. We must guard our culture as we embark into the new century’s focus on Asian cities, and as we market our country with the cry, “It’s more fun in the Philippines.”

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