Baguio Insider

Today’s headlines are shouting: “Garbage Problems Did Not Dampen Arrival of Visitors - Official” This was at the close of November 30, a legal holiday in the Philippines, Revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio Day, the start of a long weekend.

Of course they would not affect ARRIVAL — no one but WE knew how bad things have been the past two months. But thanks to the heavy influx of visitors, now THEY know how dirty Baguio is these days. And thanks to blogging, I would not be surprised if more photos of UGLY BAGUIO will be posted in the next few days.

Question is: Will they RETURN? And how many people will they COMPLAIN to, whose decisions to come up will be affected? (more…)

Quote #1″Let’s face it. Much money has been invested (for the project) and removing it would be impractical.” Fariñas, appealing to the various sectors to just consider the benefits the flyover would give to the city like traffic relief in the area.

Let’s face it, there was no traffic in that area until they started building the stupid flyover! Much money was wasted on an unnecessary, ugly, impractical structure that arose from the figment of someone’s imagination on how to make massive money from the project.

If there was truly traffic congestion in the area, Domogan and Vergara could have first tried an effing stoplight before wasting a hundred million on a few meters of a concrete monstrosity.

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UPDATE on 11/17/2007: Mrs. Sembrano, who was elected as city councilor in May 2007,  and in no way responsible for the  ’savings’ from the 2006 city budget (not that that’s any justification for the city council’s recent move),  has voted along with other members to allot a cars for themselves in a recent issue.

Please read this article though as far as the irony of things is concerned, Mrs. Sembrano who heads the market committee opposing a market on Burnham Park that Pinky Rondez, head of the tourism committee is pushing for).

I was so hoping that Mrs. Sembrano, not being heretofore responsible for the current ills in Baguio (unlike her re-electionist compatriots) would be a fresh voice, a clean voice. The recent developments have proven otherwise.

I have been getting dismayed about Baguio’s mayors, vice-mayors, councilors and congressmen in recent days years. All the same people who have been members of past administrations keep getting elected all the time. The same people directly responsible for the uglification of Baguio and the destruction of the good quality of life that people have enjoyed here for decades.

Last May, Elaine Sembrano’s name surfaced because she was a dark horse, a political newbie, who’s daughter it seems appears on TV. But Mrs. Sembrano was elected because she has kept close ties with the market vendors via what can be called micro-financing, according to her sister, Baby Samonte, who is one of my friends in Manila. So she made it to the magic 12 and thank goodness for that!

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I know a lot of them are graduates of Baguio schools, and they probably think they’re doing Baguio a favor, but let me tell you how the City Council is destroying Baguio via their badly thought of plans.

The city bounced back pretty fast after the 1990 earthquake, but the damage caused by the local government in the 17 years since is like water torture, drop after drop (or should I say, building after ugly building, policy after useless policy) and yet in the end, devastating to the environment that fuels our economy. And it continues to this day.

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Instead of the members of the city council behaving as ‘urban developers,’ insisting on erecting parking buildings on Burnham, satellite markets on the sidewalks, and uglifying Baguio, they should stop, think/research, listen/debate, LEGISLATE. That’s what they were elected for. And one subject they can really look into, as per my humble suggestion, is Baguio real estate taxes.

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