Baguio: The Past Meets the Present
Joe Lansang of Manila Cafe, who now lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, sent me a few months ago a link to a photo website by Russel Ariola that features old and new photos of Baguio attractions and landmarks side-by-side. This post title is actually the title of his site. I imagine what painstaking efforts have been exerted to come up with those comparisons. You guys should check it out!
Some buildings, like the Mansion and the Baguio Cathedral, actually look better today while others have been replaced by structures that reflect the whims of the people in power. For example, there is the Maharlika Livelihood Center, named after Ferdinand Marcos’ fabrication of a WWII guerrilla force that replaced what was Stone Building at the base of Session Road.
I do not remember Stone Building, and while I was ‘googling’ it, I stumbled upon this nostalgia piece about Session Road. I remember Maharlika a-building in the 1970s but was probably born too late to remember what was there before it.
Joe emailed me some old photos that are from the collection Engr. Virgilio Pineda. The same photos appear at Russel Ariola’s site and are credited to ‘William Fabianic 1962.’ Since I do not know who to credit these photos to, I hesitate to publish them here or at Go Baguio!
The funny thing is that I was scouring the web for good photo of the Main Club at Camp John Hay and found that I had one in my email all the time!
My Suggestions for a Better Baguio
This section has been deleted and will come out as a whole new post soon. You see, I can be an impulsive blogger, shooting my fingers off to what I feel falls on deaf eyes. Upon re-reading i, I felt I could improve on it, and give readers and the politicians pretty much a blueprint for the painless and cost-free improvement of Baguio, from the perspective of someone who has seen beautiful Baguio and ugly Baguio.
Tax 5000 pesos per head from those who do not know how to use th trash cans, who cross using the area UNDER the overpass, who make pedestrial lanes paradahans.
Abolish the flea market at the bottom of Session road.
Make better use of the former Session theatre and the one below Dunkin Donuts(forgot the name)
Zero tolerance for ukay ukays. Tehy’re not from charity anymore as during the past years. They’re merely smuggled clothes from Subic and Manila pier.
The city will be rich, I’m sure. Haha. With the number of violators, we will have much money to renovate Burnham park.
I wish you’d mention those karaokes at the CBD. Those are for Otek street. They’re even near our schools. Also, demolish that VERY UGLY structure that his the hang out place of gangstas right in front of SLSC–elementay department– the one near Assumption Medical Center. I even doubt if they have Business permit yet a few walks away is UB! I want to add that ugly and unsafe structure right infront of UB.
Because Baguio is overpopulated, I think the government should encourage our Universities to build campuses in the lowlands since most of the student come from there naman. It’s a winw-in situation. Baguio gets really decongested, education will be more accessible to the lowlanders. Stop dreaming of being educational hub of the north. Every province deserves to have high quality education, not only Baguio. Every province should be their own educational hub.
Hi, thanks for adding my link. It wasn’t paintstaking at all. Just took a lot of trial and error getting the same angle as the old photos. That section has been getting alot of buzz and people seem to want to see more. If anyone out there would like to email or send me old photos of Baguio I’ll be glad to take a RECENT photo for comparison. Thanks again