One of the opinion columns that I seek out every week is Baguio Ko, Mahal Ko written by Virginia Oteyza de Guia, a fiesty little old lady who commands so much admiration and respect in Baguio City.
I first met Mrs. de Guia in 1999 when we held a series of negotiations for my possibly leasing a 300 square meter area on the 4th floor of their family-owned La Azotea building on Session Road for a business I wanted to put up. The business was eventually erected on Legarda Road, but what I remember from that time was that I so badly wanted to be their lessee because I fell in love with Mrs. de Guia herself. Read More…
Chi alerted us to the most recent issue of the city council voting to use public funds to issue themselves cars. By the way, we noticed she has switched from Chi from the Coooooool Clouds to Chi from the ‘Hot’ Clouds when commenting, and understandably so. Here’s the news link and there are animated discussions in two wonderful and influential blogs: Bill Bilig’s From the Boondocks and Jack Carino’s where you can head on over and vent, if you wish.
I am only going to join in as far as commenting in these gentlemen’s blogs, and chronicling here how these greedy people voted. Of course, with all the furor this recent move has made, “Mr. Clean” Peter Rey Bautista, who was not party to the shenanigans present during the deliberations is expected to veto it if just for his own (political) good, upon his return from China. Read More…
Folks who know me will say I am quick to get over my anger, quick to forget. That makes me very Filipino, I suppose. That’s why it surprises me that I can be this angry for this long. But more than mere anger, there is great depression, uncertainty, even despair.
Folks who know me also know that I am a very open book, that I speak my mind, that although I used to be probably the shallowest person who walked the august halls of U.P. Diliman in the early 1980s, all that changed when Lean Alejandro was slain in 1987. And when one of my favorite persons, Cochise Bernabe, disappeared forever in 1990, life somehow lost a lot of its flavor.
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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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Baguio’s Burnham Park: Then and Now
by Jonathan Best
Today, Burnham Park is facing severe challenges from commercial developers, ill-conceived municipal projects and poor maintenance.
When American architect Daniel Burnham first drew up his city plan for Baguio in 1904, he saved the very best piece of real estate for a public park. His thinking reflected the progressive social values of the time. Government was expected to serve the people and provide for their health and recreation. A large public park with open fields and an artificial lake was considered a necessity for a modern urban environment. Even for a small city such as Baguio, which was only expected to grow to around 25,000 people, a park was considered of prime importance.
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