DENR man hits the brakes on SM lot registration

(Originally published in the Feb. 26 to March 3, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle ---

a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

A CARTOGRAPHER of the Department of Natural Resources and Natural Resources (DENR) Cordillera Regional Office is asking the Register of Deeds of Baguio “to hold in abeyance the registration of any transfer in the name of SM Corporation involving the parcel of land occupied by SM City Baguio or any portion covered by OCT No. 1”.

In a letter to Register of Deeds’ Atty. Guerrero Felipe dated January 9, 2012, Dominador Bocalen said he was prompted to write because “allowing the registration would be legalizing what is illegal and unjust”.

“There is no approved plan covering the 29-hectare property allegedly covered by OCT No. 1 and the SM site is not titled to or owned by anyone, including the Insular Government of the Philippines,” he contended.

“The portion whereon SM City Baguio now stands is very controversial and is now involved in a case filed against myself and two others,” he said.

Bocalen narrated that indeed, 16 individuals have filed their respective Townsite Sales Applications (TSA) with A.O. 504 Committee of the DENR-CAR covering portions of the SM site.

“There being no title in the name of SM at that time and no titled owner of the parcel of land, eight applications were cleared for further processing,” he said. “Eventually, all 16 TSAs covering portions of the SM site have either been withdrawn or denied.”

And for “clearing” the eight TSAs, Bocalen and his two other co-employees were administratively charged and who have served their respective 90-day suspensions from September 1 to November 30, 2011.

Eventually, “the land was reportedly sold by DENR to SM Corporation but no deed of transfer has been executed by the government since 2006”, Bocalen revealed in his letter to the Register of Deeds.

“Suddenly and mysteriously, the DENR produced OCT No. 1 allegedly issued to the Philippine Insular Government in 1910 and the deed of sale to SM Corporation of the parcel of land was executed in September 2011 while we were suspended,” Bocalen added. “This questionable title of a 29-hectare parcel of prime land covers Burnham Park, Athletic Bowl, University of the Cordilleras, COMELEC, (the Baguio) Convention Center, Baden Powell site, BPI (Bank of Phil. Islands) and PILTEL sites, University of the Philippines Baguio Campus and SM City.”

“We suffered a lot, we were mentally-tortured, ridiculed, and humiliated because we were presented as corrupt, inept, and inefficient government workers with the case filed against us,” Bocalen said in his emotionally-charged letter.

He was referring to a 2008 investigation made by a fact-finding committee created under Special Order No. 59, Series 07 2007 to determine if the Townsite Sales Applications of Michelle Padron, Henry Padron, Sherlyne Ibay, Marie Grace Ibay, Florence Ibay, Alex Ibay, Crescencio Ducusin, and Cecile Ducusin are outside or inside the road-right-of-way of Harrison Road, OCT1 and that sold to SM Investments.

The investigation also sought to determine who were responsible for the pre-screening clearance and acceptance of Townsite Sales Applications within the OCT 1 (SM area) and the road-right-of-way (Harrison Road).

In the end, the committee recommended the cancellation of the clearance issued to Michelle Padron, Henry Padron, Sherlyne Ibay, Marie Grace Ibay, Florence Ibay, Alex Ibay, Crescencio Ducusin, and Cecile Ducusin.

The committee also recommended that formal charges be filed against Bucalen (and his two other co-employees) for gross misconduct.

On June 29, 2009, the Baguio City Council adopted the recommendations of a fact-finding committee which it also constituted to investigate the issue.

The City Council agreed to request the then DENR Secretary “to update the city government as regards City Council Resolution No. 164, Series of 2007, particularly the portion which asked the DENR Secretary (a) to hold in abeyance any action on the Deed of Conveyance or Deed of Sale executd by DENR-CAR in favor of SM Investments Corp. covering those parcels of land, particularly Lot X-1, Lot Y-2 and those lots in front of the University of the Cordilleras and the COMELEC along Gov. Pack Road; (b) to initiate the prevention of the completion of any construction by SM Investments Corp. thereat should the findings of the fact-finding committee warrant that some action be taken thereon such as the rescission of the contract; and, (c) to hold in abeyance the approval or issuance of any title thereto, or in the vent that a title is issued, to revoke the same".

And to remedy the muddled situation, the city council also adopted the following recommendations of the fact-finding committee: for the DENR-CAR to identify and mark on the ground all corners of OCT No. 1 as per the submitted verified survey; to urge the DENR-CAR to cause the approval of the Verification Survey in accordance to the Manual for Land Surveys in the Philippines and specifically indicating the correct Tie Line of the lot covered by OCT No. 1; to request the DENR-CAR to cancel TSI 1-2-000767, containing an area of 352 square meters in the name of Delia C. Guerrero (now Mary Tan) and restore it to its original use for road purposes, including the clearing of the remaining portion of that portion of OCT No. 1 and open it for traffic; approval of a resolution urging Pres. G. Arroyo, through the DENR, for the issuance of an amendatory proclamation designating Lots X-1 and Y-2 as Technology Information Center under the administration of the city government of Baguio; and approval of the dproposed Resolution No. PR 097-08 of the Fact-Finding Committee “moving for the inventory of the unoccupied and/or undisposed portions of that parcel of land covered by OCT No. 1 in the name of the Insular Government of the Philippines and the turning over of the same to the city government of Baguio for public purposes”, including that area covered by SWO-41583, known as the BIBAK Dorm as per Resolution No. 009, Series of 2009.

Bocalen however lamented that nothing came out of the resolution of the city council regarding the said anomaly despite their findings.

On January 10 last year, Bocalen filed a Motion to Dismiss the charges thrown at him by Baguilat “for failure to prosecute within the reasonable time” and for violation of his right to a speedy disposition of the case.

On September 5, 2011, Bocalen lodged an “answer” praying that after a formal investigation, an order or resolution be issued dismissing the administrative case filed against him for Gross Misconduct amounting to Non-Feasance / Misfeasance “for lack of factual and legal basis and lack of merit”.

But it was not until July 25 last year --- three-and-a-half years later --- that DENR Regional Executive Director Clarence Baguilat formally charged Bocalen (and his two other co-employees) for ‘gross misconduct amounting to non-feasance’ for intentionally withholding or twisting information resulting to the A.O. 504 Clearance Committee being misled to issue clearance to eight Townsite Sales Applications of Michelle Padron, Henry Padron, Sherlyne Ibay, Marie Grace Ibay, Florence Ibay, Alex Ibay, Crescencio Ducusin, and Cecile Ducusin.

Such “nonfeasance / misfeasance specifically consists in your misrepresenting that the areas covered by the eight applications are outside of Lot 4 (Resort Hotel) Proclamation 205 and within Lot X, IR 261 and withholding the TRUE information that Lot X, IR 261 has been previously awarded to SM Investment Corporation as early as 1992”, Baguilat contended in his formal charge against Bocalen and his two other co-employees.

“The facts reveal that I did my job in accordance with established procedures and the government has nothing to sell to SM Corporation because the property is not titled in the name of the government,” Bocalen bravely stood his ground in his letter to the Register of Deeds.

“The presentation of OCT No. 1 is to cover-up an anomalous transaction facilitated by scheming and corrupt government officials and employees,” he added.*

Mike Pearson speaks on ‘pedestrianization’ idea

“SESSION Road doesn’t belong to the businessmen of Session Road; it belongs to the city of Baguio,” Baguio-born Mike Pearson said in response to the pronouncements of at least two prominent business regarding the idea to ‘pedestrianize’ Baguio’s main thoroughfare Session Road.

Pearson, a direct descendant of an American family who settled in Baguio in the 1930s, was speaking during a meeting of about 25 businessmen purposely to compare notes on the ‘pedestrianization’ idea. Prominently led by book and school supplies store owner Nelia Cid, the group met at a nearby hotel fearing that the ‘pedestrianization’ of the city’s main thoroughfare will push them to bankruptcy and eventual extinction.

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan approved the nine-hour ‘pedestrianization’ of Session Road last January 27 as part of a forum called Recreating a People-Friendly Session Road held at the University of the Cordilleras. It lasted from 3 o’clock in the afternoon until midnight.

‘Pedestrianization’ proponents prefer to call it “opening Session Road to people”.

“Session Road is central business district; it is strictly for business, not for ‘pedestrianization’ . . . ‘predestrianizing’ is very idealistic but not applicable to Session Road,” said the elderly Cid. “We will be losing a lot of business or profit; Session Road is not meant for promenading but purely business and profit.”

“As President of the Session Road Business Association, I have to protect Session Road (from those wanting to kill our business),” she added.

“Session Road is not for people; it is for business! Improve Burnham Park (instead); Burnham Park is for people,” added burger chain franchisee, hotelier and grocery owner Mike del Rosario screamed in his usual world-class Toastmasters International’s decades of training in public speaking, as he turned the tables on former Baguio City Architect Joseph Alabanza, a ‘pedestrianization’ proponent who was present during the said meeting.

“We have to change and you have to be willing to accept change and you must be willing to try and keep an open mind because where we are now is going downhill and it is not just Session Road but the whole city,” Pearson told the dumbstruck group. “We are overpopulated; we have too much of everything that is not right.”

“We are going downhill,” he repeated. “Once upon a time, we are the third best city in our category in the Philippines; today, we are 21st among the twenty-five.”

“We have to change and the enemy is not SM,” he challenged his fellow businessmen. “SM came because we weren’t doing very well, we weren’t very organized.”

“Why do people go to SM? Because everything is there,” he said. “Even when it is raining, there are more people in SM than in Session Road; let us face the fact.”

“We have to clean up our own acts first and police ourselves and find a better way and get the whole of Session Road connected,” Pearson begged. “We really need to go to that direction.”

Pearson lamented that “tourists, foreigners, don’t feel comfortable (in Session Road) and people won’t come to Baguio because they feel they are not safe”.

He cited the stinking sewer along Session Road which “is from the tenants of Session Road dumping their things there at night”.

“Sidewalk vendors, all these things, would affect us all; there are some businesses on Session Road that have extended on the sidewalk,” he said. “We have to agree that we don’t find it acceptable.”

He added that some businesses are making money by allowing people sell on the sidewalks. “There are those bending the rules,” he said.

During the said meeting of the businessmen who find the ‘pedestrianization’ as a crazy idea, Alabanza assured them that “no definite decisions have been made insofar as (the ‘pedestrianization’ of) Session Road is concerned.”

“We will initiate a citizens’ participation in decision-making,” he said. “That is a very important component insofar as getting people interested, especially when they affects you or where you reside or where you do business and of course, the whole city of Baguio.”

He said that Session Road has become a mere passage way between the market and SM. “A glorified passage way,” he declared. According to him, ‘pedestrianizing’ would eventually “make Session Road a destination area and making it a destination area would mean that we will be attracting and keeping the pedestrians in Session Road and get them patronize the businesses in Session Road”.

“The intention is to make Session Road as dynamic as possible so that people are destined to go to Session Road and not destined to go to SM,” he said as he mourned how the city’s population has swelled.

“There are limits to growth; the carrying capacity of Baguio is lost,” he said.*

Architect Alabanza assures bizmen on ‘pedestrianization’

(Originally published in the Feb. 12 to 18, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle

--- a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

by Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

“BEFORE any major development occurs in the city, we would like to consult the people; we would like to hear from you,” former City Architect Joseph Alabanza told a group of Baguio businessmen following the “experimental closure” of Session Road two weeks ago. ‘Pedestrianization’ proponents prefer to call it “opening Session Road to people”.

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan approved the nine-hour ‘pedestrianization’ of Session Road as part of a forum called Recreating a People-Friendly Session Road held at the University of the Cordilleras. It lasted from 3 o’clock in the afternoon until midnight.

Prominently led by book and school supplies store owner Nelia Cid, about 25 business people from Session Road gathered last week at a nearby hotel to compare notes, fearing that the ‘pedestrianization’ of the city’s main thoroughfare will push them to bankruptcy and eventual extinction.

“Session Road is central business district . . . it is strictly for business, not for ‘pedestrianization’ . . . ‘predestrianizing’ is very idealistic but not applicable to Session Road,” said the elderly Cid. “We will be losing a lot of business or profit; Session Road is not meant for promenading but purely business and profit.”

“As President of the Session Road Business Association, I have to protect Session Road (from those wanting to kill our business),” she added.

“Session Road is not for people; it is for business! Improve Burnham Park (instead); Burnham Park is for people,” added burger chain franchisee, hotelier and grocery owner Mike del Rosario screamed in his usual world-class Toastmasters International’s decades of training in public speaking, as he turned the tables on Alabanza.

“No definite decisions have been made insofar as (the ‘pedestrianization’ of) Session Road is concerned,” Alabanza assured. “We will of course initiate a citizens’ participation in decision-making; that is a very important component insofar as getting people interested, especially when they affect you or where you reside or where you do business and of course, the whole city of Baguio.”

“What we are trying to do is get feedback from people like you; we are getting as much information from the public; we are going around asking people how they feel about ‘pedestrianizing’ Session Road,” he added. “We opened that portion of Session Road to people just to experience what ‘pedestrianizing’ can do.”

Alabanza said that Session Road has become just a passage way between the market and SM. “A glorified passage way,” he declared.

According to him, ‘pedestrianizing’ would eventually “make Session Road a destination area and making it a destination area would mean that we will be attracting and keeping the pedestrians in Session Road and get them patronize the businesses in Session Road”.

“The intention is to make Session Road as dynamic as possible so that people are destined to go to Session Road and not destined to go to SM,” he said as he mourned how the city’s population has swelled.

“We should realize that Baguio is over-developed; we have problems on solid waste management, we have problems on water, traffic, pollution because of the very rapid migration into Baguio,” he said. “There are limits to growth; the carrying capacity of Baguio is lost.”

“We have one of the biggest ratio of vehicles and pedestrians,” he said. “Let us try to work out something now,” he begged the businessmen.

Baguio City Police’s Traffic Management Division Chief Allan Logan lamented in another forum the irreversible increase of motor vehicles clogging practically all the streets of the city.

According to Logan, the number of registered motor vehicles in Baguio has reached 38,000 compared to 36,000 ten years ago. Of the 38,000 carbon-emitting vehicles, 27,8000 are privately-owned while 11,000 are public utility vehicles and of which 6,000 are jeeps and the rest are taxis.

Added to the 38,000 motor vehicles fighting their way through every square inch of the roads is close to half million people now populating Baguio, all in a never-increasing 49 square kilometers of land.

“These motor vehicles traverse and converge at the central business district --- the common point of destination --- and as a result, traffic becomes heavy,” Logan said.

During a one-on-one meeting between Mayor Domogan and Architect Alabanza last month, the latter bluntly told the former that “the conflict between the pedestrians and the vehicular traffic must be resolved now”. This writer was privy to that meeting.

Alabanza told the Baguio Chronicle that the Saint Louis University has offered to do a feasibility study on the ‘pedestrianization’ of Session Road. “I am hoping that other universities will come in also to do research on the effects of the ‘pedestrianization’ to the business in the area,” he said.

He narrated that he, as the City Architect initiated in 1972 a Policy Plan for Baguio “in terms of what we thought would be the ‘future’ of Baguio”. And “one policy that came out very strongly said that something has to be done already because of the pollution in the downtown area, particularly Session Road, not necessarily the whole of Baguio,” he said.

“We have not identified growth areas in the region to the extent that people all come to Baguio,” he opined. “Growth areas to allow migrants to go to instead of only to Baguio; the congressmen should pour in funds to these growth areas; this way, it will reduce the migration to Baguio.”

Meanwhile, Baguio Cathedral’s Reverend Lorenzo Abella said he finds the idea to ‘pedestrianize’ Session Road as “interesting because it can bring back a clean (from pollution) Session Road”.

“But of course, if that happens, there will be drawbacks,” he admitted.

“People must come up with a consensus; they have valid reasons; it is nice to listen to their objections or suggestions,” he said.*

It’s more fun in Sagada

(Originally published in my sports page column Self-Propelled

in the Feb. 12 to 18, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle

--- a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines.)

IT was another exciting week after putting to bed the Baguio Chronicle the other Friday night. Reaching home at around 10 o’clock, nothing compares to the joy of seeing my family waiting in the comfort and privacy of our humble home. The puppies, yes, Timmy and Carmel, competing for attention like we did not see each other for many years.

After settling down, I reached out for my ukulele and tried to belt out some tunes from the past and songs about unfulfilled promises and a love-gone-wrong. But not for long, for fear that tears would betray me, I took a warm bath instead.

But my ukulele, waiting naked on the sofa, is too difficult to resist. And it sounded as sweet, yet melancholic, as the night wore on. I walked towards the fridge for a chilled beer.

It was well past one o’clock in the morning when fellow photographer-writer Harley Palangchao picked me up. With us is another photographer and Baguio Chronicle regular contributor Larry “The Fabulous” Fabian.

Destination: Sagada, Mt. Province and sleepless. I bid my ukulele a sad goodbye.

And what is normally a breathtaking view during daytime deep into what is more known as the Mountain Trails, our night travel proved to be more exciting as nature treated us to a moon-lit panorama as far as the eye can see as the mercury dropped to levels unheard of in Baguio whose trees are fast dwindling because of “progress”. Fifty kilometers into our trip, pass the Highest Point in Sayangan, I brushed aside the visual temptation and plunged into a half-sleep.

I was teasing our driver over breakfast later by saying that I remember hearing maybe just three songs from his car stereo before we reached Sagada, implying that it took him a little more than an hour less from the normal travel time. We were travelling practically at the speed of sound.

Sagada was still asleep when we arrived, enough for us to catch a few minutes of rest at a home-stay accommodation earlier arranged for us by no less than Mayor Eduardo Latawan, Jr.

Breakfast at Alfredo’s was rather anticlimactic when the cultural parade and street dancing started and we scampered to position with our cameras dangling from our necks like a pendulum. The street was overflowing with locals and tourists and photographers, a lot of them foreigners. But it was less chaotic compared to the Baguio Flower Festival where crowd control marshals are nothing but killjoys, foul-mouthed and plainly incompetent S.O.B.s. There are no power-tripping marshals in Sagada. The organizers are more cordial and media-friendly. It was less commercialized and it is not intended to be commercialized.

And what was originally planned as a one-day love affair in Sagada became two days. Photographers do not just abandon a cultural event like the Etag Festival and a town like Sagada. There is still the tribal sports competition and the Sagada Mountain Mayhem all-mountain and downhill challenge the next day. We consolidated with the group who came in from Banaue with Baguio Chronicle’s Ofelia, Northern Dispatch’s Alma, professional photographer EliCon and Ms. Linda Fines of the Dept. of Tourism. We swore to stick it out and go home together as a group.

And so we called it a day. SanMig Lights tasted a lot better in Sagada than in Baguio it seemed and tons upon tons of laughter and fun on the side. Bonding at its finest!

My idiot phone’s alarm woke up four o’clock in the morning and it took me about five seconds to figure out I was in Sagada and I later became the center of poking about it. We drove to a forested barrio hoping to photograph a Sagada sunrise, but thick fogs did not allow us and for one brief moment, we were a bit superstitious about it.

But the photoshoot at a nearby rice terraces later and the Sagada Mountain Mayhem was more than redemption and perhaps photography proselyte Ofelia’s crowning moment.

At the Sagada Mountain Mayhem, adrenalin rush was not only high among the bikers but also among us photographers.

Like infantrymen in a foxhole or trench, we squeezed into an 8-foot deep canal that allowed us a skyward angle and take photos of the bikers while in midair as they jump their two-wheel iron horses across the 8-foot wide canal. It is perhaps the location of the entire 1.5 kilometers stretch of the downhill portion of the two-day sporting event where we spent most of shooting time.

Before I go, I would like to thank Mayor Latawan and Vice Mayor Richard Yodong for the warm accommodation and of course, the unlimited food.

As they say: It’s more fun in Sagada!*

Baguio’s biz giants shun ‘pedestrianization’ idea

(Originally published in the Feb. 5 to 11 issue of the Baguio Chronicle

--- a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines ---

Sly L. Quintos, Associate Editor.)

“SESSION Road is not for people . . . it is for business! . . . improve Burnham Park (instead) . . . Burnham Park is for people,” burger chain franchisee, hotelier and grocery owner Mike del Rosario screamed in his usual world-class Toastmasters International’s decades of training in public speaking.

“Session Road is central business district . . . it is strictly for business, not for ‘pedestrianization’ . . . ‘predestrianizing’ is very idealistic but not applicable to Session Road . . . we will be losing a lot of business or profit . . . Session Road is not meant for promenading but purely business and profit . . . as President of the Session Road Business Association, I have to protect Session Road (from those wanting to kill our business),” added school supplies store owner Nelia Cid.

Del Rosario and Cid were just two of the about 25 business people from Session Road who gathered last Thursday at a nearby hotel fearing that the ‘pedestrianization’ of the city’s main thoroughfare is pushing them to their eventual extinction and instead turned the tables on the Recreating a People-Friendly Session Road forum held on January 27 at the University of the Cordilleras.

The forum also got the nod of Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan for an ‘experimental’ closure of a portion of Session Road to vehicular traffic for 9 hours from 3 ‘o’clock in the afternoon until midnight. Proponents of the forum preferred to call it “opening Session Road to pedestrians” (instead of “closing it to vehicular traffic”).

While Cid said she favors a no-parking Session Road (except, according to her, for the motor vehicles and delivery vans of the owners of the business establishments thereat), she argued that a national road like Session Road cannot be closed, more so if the purpose is simply to ‘pedestrianize’ it.

She said that when Session Road is closed to vehicular traffic during Flower Festivals, “we are losing business but we cooperated (with the Flower Festival organizers) . . . each time Session Road is closed for parades, we are losing business but we kept silent”.

“Those who would know the real situation in Session Road are those in business like us,” she contended.

She also scored on the group that was able to convince Mayor Domogan to close Session Road for 9 hours last January 27, saying “you excluded the business section (in hatching the idea)”.

As to the argument that ‘pedestrianizing’ Session Road would reduce pollution, Cid argued back that “pollution is not coming from the cars passing through Session Road but from vehicles at Magsaysay Avenue”.

Del Rosario was also along the same line of argument. “We are not reducing pollution (along Session Road); we are merely transferring it to another street,” he contended. “I do not think overall air quality of Baguio would improve by merely closing Session Road.”

“Why is it that each time there is a problem, you close Session Road?,” he asked. “This is bullying!”

Cid and Del Rosario both threw back all the blame on the government for faulty implementation of related laws such as the Clear Air Act and ordinances which led to the increase of sidewalks vendors which, again, adversely affected their profit.

In reply to this writer’s e-mail, environmentalist and Director of the Cordillera Conservation Trust, JP Alipio said that “this is basically not a done deal, what we did last Friday is in no way the final form of ‘pedestrianization’.”

“As you know, ‘pedestrianization’ is not just about closing the roads,” Alipio said. “It has to be a system which includes managing traffic around it, creating activities that will draw people in and stimulate business, and providing better public transport; this can be done by simply organizing what we already have --- jeeps and taxis.”

“The concerns of business are legitimate,” Alipio agreed. “But like the CEO of 7-11 who said more foot traffic means more business; in essence, the market really comes from people who do not own cars and in fact that is a much larger market, even for SM so that people who park or own cars are not actually the bulk of the people who buy or patronize establishments, instead it is the people who use public transport.”

According to Alipio, ‘pedestrianization’ involves creating a traffic management plan, vehicular reduction by either number coding, higher CBD parking prices, and better public transport.

“Business can be induced by creating activities that will draw people in, similar to how SM does it with its mall-wide events; we could have Session-wide events that induce more people to come (to Session Road instead of elsewhere),” he said.

“We have to look at the situation in three dimensions as well,” he added. “Pedestrianization does not mean that the road has to be closed all the time; maybe eventually that can happen but initially it can be timed or during certain days or times of the day.”

“I hope these people see the light or else Session Road will just degrade into the cheapest stores and really result in urban decay,” he said. “When that happens, where do you think people will go? to SM, of course, because to them, it is nicer to walk there; ‘pedestrianizing’ Session Road will make it competitive against SM.”

“It is best to expand the pie and not draw battle lines between YES or NO; there are options available to both sides where both will benefit,” he ended.

Meanwhile, Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan said during this every-Wednesday press conference Ugnayan aired live over SkyCable Community Channel 12, said ‘pedestrianizing’ Session Road is possible provided certain issues are met and satisfied.

He said that there must be an alternate road where traffic can be diverted and it must be ensured that business along Session Road must not be adversely affected. “We will surely improve air quality along Session Road (should it get ‘pedestrianized’),” he said.*

‘Pedestrianization’ Revisited

(Originally published in my sports page column Self-Propelled

in the Feb. 5 to 11, 2012 issue of the Baguio Chronicle

--- a weekly newspaper based in Baguio City, Philippines.)

(I yield my column this week to Arch. Raffy Chan as a guest columnist. He is a Fellow of the United Architects of the Philippines and holder of Master of Arts in Environmental and Habitat Planning.)

NO one will disagree: if one’s means of earning a living was threatened, one’s automatic response would be to rise and face up against anything and everything that may compromise said means (so long as it is legal, of course). This is a logical reaction that cannot be questioned, particularly when the survival of one’s family could be at risk.

Having factored the above into the proposal to pedestrianize portions of the Baguio central business district, we (‘pedestrianization’ proponents) say that we can identify with the business owners at Session Road, on the matter. We need to give a plausible explanation, if only to put this matter in proper context. If you are one of those who are against the proposal, my request is that you read what follows in its entirety. My only request is that you keep an open mind with what you are about to read and objectively think the matter through. Allow me to mention that there are many who have manifested their receptiveness with the concept.

Foremost, please dispel from your mind the thinking that we are out to get you. Do not think that we want your business to fail or go down the drain; nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing can be gained from such. Many of you are long-time friends and acquaintances, and we want prosperity to continue for the businesses you have. Our agenda is actually for a better Baguio and the improvement what we now have.

From the negative reactions I have heard, the pre-conceived notion is that the matter is a ‘done deal’ and that all of the plans have been laid out. Nothing could be further from the truth. Please understand that the proposals remain exploratory trials as we continually search for the best solutions. Allow me to go on record that many ideas have been presented, a number of studies have been made; but the final course of action remains the biggest question that needs to be answered. Despite our technical training, as architects and planners, we still do not have all of the answers.

It has also been asked, why start the experiments in Session Road? Instead, why not do something about the traffic in the adjoining roads like Harrison or General Luna? Allow me to cite that much has already been done concerning our traffic problems here in Baguio. Certain routes have actually been re-routed, much to the anger of many --- those who have not been receptive to changes in traffic. To the credit of some, we have been successful with certain changes. Slowly, our people have learned to accept the positive changes that have been achieved. Indeed, more can be done elsewhere but we need to re-focus where the effect will count most --- the central business district. We need to reconcile: Session Road is not the target but the urban center of the city. And we never forget: whatever we do in one portion will have outreaching effects on the traffic. Precisely why we need everyone’s receptiveness in our search for what is good for the city.

On the matter of experimenting and searching for answers, allow me to cite one great achievement that has been realized through experimentation: solving the traffic problem that continually plagued the top of Session Road (rotunda of the former concrete pine tree). Recall with me that even as early as the seventies and eighties, several traffic changes have been continually introduced thereat. All of which failed to successfully solve the gridlock during critical hours. Not until we successfully convinced everyone that we were better off having the Baguio Post Office Loop as a large rotunda. Everyone finally understood the error in having the original, small rotunda where several intersections prevailed. No one ever saw the simplicity of the solution: which was to limit the number of intersections, until we had the courage to try it out. Many fumed and even cursed the people behind “another bad experiment” but were eventually converted into believers as everyone realized that we had finally hit an excellent solution when everyone begun to follow the established changes and see the gridlock disappear.

Our vision is to seek out with our local citizenry and city officials, ways to improve the ills of the city. Foremost, we need to reconcile that we need to look for what will benefit the greater majority of the city’s stakeholders. Everyone should like this: if ‘pedestrianization’ is wanted by our citizenry, then so be it. On the other hand, if most of our city stakeholders reject it, then let the decision of the majority rule.

At times, we can become tired of all these proposals for changes. This is probably the reason why Architect Joseph Alabanza and the undersigned never actively campaigned for the ‘pedestrianization’ agenda for so long a period; because we felt that the support has dwindled to almost nil. We were elated that the Inquirer article by Ms. Desiree Caluza rekindled the interest of people, including those from Cebu and Manila who even came all the way to Baguio to support the initiative. We willingly decided to give the matter another go, and hope that more people will be receptive to the trials and experiments.

No one will dispute, that we now have a city that has been plunged into the depths of functional obsolescence. Ask anyone (Baguio residents and visitors alike), and they will enumerate a litany of the ills in our city. Will we just allow our Baguio to continually rot into oblivion, without doing anything? Government should not and cannot be expected to give all of the answers. What’s more, citizen participation is the most vital component that should manifest. True and real governance must be a sincere partnership between a proactive public and government.

Allow me to end with an appropriate Chinese proverb which I propose we all ponder. “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” Allow me to contextualize. Instead of continually complaining and ranting about the bad traffic in Session Road, the pollution that persists thereat, the slowed business that persists --- because most of the customers now prefer to shop and dine at Luneta Hill (SM has become bad news to many local businesses). Will it not be better to continually search for ways to improve Baguio and revitalize our CBD to offer something new?

Brilliant as some people are, no one has the exclusivity on all of the knowledge in the world; which is the reason why we listen to all who want to voice out an opinion. Despite all of the experience one has, no one can truly say, that he has nothing else to learn; which is why we must all be receptive to proposals and not “shoot them down” on sight (as they are proposed).

Let us all remain united as we face up with the challenge to do something for this city of pines, as we invite all who care for our urban abode to join us; be receptive to change, which will benefit the majority of our city stakeholders.

All for a better Baguio.*