Baguio Insider

It is funny how I (foot)noted in A Perfect Day how God answered my very specific prayers for light rain last Holy Week. April showers always put a damper on outdoor activities and yet the temperatures were too high for a bonfire so I really wanted Baguio visitors to sample perfect weather, a lot of them having traveled from so far away.

I sometimes am shocked at, although utterly grateful for, how He responds so directly and swiftly so I am pretty careful about what I pray for (because I just might get it).

Of course 66 MILLION Filipino Catholics prayed together last Sunday for rain. I suppose our reservoir levels were so dangerously low that the Church had to step in and try ‘to do something about it.’ How could God not grant us the rain we so desperately needed? So it started pouring in Manila and Baguio last Monday and the rainfall has been pretty heavy for three whole days so far. I am wondering how it has been for other parts of the country. Did God grant the rain only to those areas whose reserves are low or to the whole country in general?

During Baguio’s lean tourist months I do spend long stretches in Manila as my 3 siblings all have their birthdays in July and August. And the heat in Manila can be so oppressive, especially for one who lives in Baguio. So the rains are always welcome. Plus Manila raindrops are is nice and warm while Baguio rain, although way, way, way cleaner than Manila’s, is like little bullets of ice water pelting down on your skin. I do prefer going to Divisoria in the rain, too, because there are less people (although it’s really muddy) and it’s cooler. I did buy myself a pair of ‘platform’ Havaianas because, as it happens, they’re perfect for both the sun and the rain.

The tribes of the Cordilleras dance for their gods when they pray for rain. The Pattong is both a war dance and a rain dance of the Bontoc tribe while their Manerwap is a 2-day ritual in cases of extreme drought performed only by the strongest men. Other tribes have a lot of thanksgiving dances for a bountiful harvest, for marriage ceremonies and other rituals. You may want to read more about them here.

July 2007 may well have been a peak summer month because whatever rains came were merely the equivalent of the April showers. The only difference is that there were few tourists. I got a calls from Baguio saying it was raining cats and dogs there since Monday and I happily said, “In Manila, too! Because we all prayed for rain as one.’

For the Cordillera tribes, rain is life. For Baguio, because of the overpopulation, the residents complain about it. For Baguio hotels, the rainy season spells less visitors. For me rain is romantic, rain cleanses, and we are refreshed and reborn.

I love the rain. I love God.

Thank YOU so much.

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POSTSCRIPT: 09 AUG 2007

Some Baguio folk are actually upset by the heavy rains because they may cause landslides that will damage their property or cause some injury to their person. They are upset because almost all the 300,000 residents commute to work or to the market everyday. There is news that a child was killed by one yesterday, as I was writing about how I love the rains.

Well . . . there are places that are safe to erect a building on and there are unsafe areas. The unsafe areas are where folks squat and homestead. They either build without a permit or are actually granted one by the city engineer’s office (it does not really matter — I believe they check the structure of the building not necessarily the land it is to be built on).

On Villains and Heroes cites a PCIJ article written in 2000, ten years after the devastating earthquake that drove away many long-time residents while the laws and local officials opened the floodgates for a massive influx of squatters. It talks about sinkholes and unsafe areas, dangers known to the local government who refused to do anything for fear of being villains.

Pardon me for being callous, but they build on riverbanks and lament the fact that their child fell and drowned, or they build on a cliffside and are upset when their house falls off or when one falls on them. I don’t understand this — they have money to build a structure, no matter how rickety, but they will build it in Baguio where the air is so cold at night that the kids, inadequately insulated, can catch pneumonia? Why? Because they can!

When a massive rains come, a treeless hill side slides down, property and life are destroyed — who is to blame? Man!

But knowing many, they will blame God.