Does Baguio Really Need That BGH Flyover?
According to a news report by The Northern Dispatch Weekly the flyover by the Baguio General Hospital (BGH) will not be finished this 2007 due to lack of funds. Conflicting statements by the contractor and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), peg the additional amounts necessary for completion at P280 million and P116 million, respectively, pushing back the timetable to 2009. This means both residents and visitors will be greeted by the sight of concrete slabs and steel girders for two more years.
The original estimate was for P64 million in 2000 but it seems prices of construction materials and labor have either quadrupled or doubled in just seven years. Really now!
Why don’t we just cut our “losses” and call this insanity quits? That area experiences traffic congestion only when the police try to “manage” the flow of vehicles. I used to live on Kisad Road, and noticed that they used to do this at the time when the government officials were trying to justify the use of “surplus funds” (they keep calling it “savings”) from foreign loans borrowed for the Marcos Highway redesign to build the flyover. Of course, now the flyover itself is the cause of bottleneck traffic.
Apart from the Lion’s Head on Kennon and the (in my opinion, ugly) arches welcoming weary travelers to Baguio, the BGH rotunda is really a signal that one’s journey to Baguio is over. Sans a pylon or some other distinctive piece of art or architecture, it nevertheless is actually Baguio’s “Welcome Rotunda.” Both Marcos Highway and Kennon Road end here, and now the government wants to bypass this and redirect everyone to Governor Pack Road. Talk about creating a bottleneck!
Honestly, if the government has at least P116 million to spend on the “development” (read: concretization) of Baguio, they could instead
- >> build a water reservoir to catch our world-record rainfalls, or
- >> maybe create more sidewalks so Baguio will be conducive to walking and thus experience less pollution and traffic,
- >> commission some urban planners to make a study on zoning and development,
- >> bury utility lines so people can stop stealing the cables and so that the electric “cooperative” stops turning the power off everytime it drizzles for fear that pine trees will fall on the wires,
- >> conduct a study of jeepney routes so that multiple, redundant jeepney lines do not pass every major road,
- >> create a multi-storey parking building and bus terminal on Governor Pack Road below SM City Baguio, as one of the reasons Baguio experiences so much traffic is because vehicles keep going round and round, up and down trying to find a parking spot.
There’s so much that needs to be done to restore Baguio to its former glory and, believe me, that stupid flyover is not one of them.
We just...
AMEN to all of the above! There’s so much that can be done- you’ve just enumerated a lot.
Yay! Thanks for putting me on the Baguio Lovers blogroll –>
de nada! i figured i’d group all the folks with ties to baguio (past and present residents) together in a special group. Maybe long lost friends can find each other … plus i figured visitors here would be interested in the Baguio experiences of others.
the first blogroll are websites of family & friends really, whether or not they have any Baguio tags. Have no name for that blogroll yet, though.
if i were to list the sites I read currently, visitors might be bored because they’re all tech blogs right now (e.g. how to set up a wordpress blog). hahaha.
very good points! all of them. especially the jeepney route thing. they should just consolidate and maybe build a little cable car thing like san francisco. i hate that flyover. they should get rid of all the colorum taxis who don’t do anything but park in session and cause traffic.
but that’s just me.
i saw my blog link here and got surprised. hahaha. thank you!
Agree with you with your sentiments on the issue/s Lisa. I lived near BGH before, actually I rode on the jeepney that goes through BGH and I am really puzzled on how a flyover can be built there. There is just too much concrete in Baguio already. Is the fake tree at the Session Road rotonda still there, what an eye sore!
Hi Lisa. This blog is looking great. More than the glossy brochures that government sites offer, it is the resident’s insight that really gives a realistic picture of Baguio.
Hi Lisa, I just checked out your blogroll… Si Karin kamukhang-kamukha na ni Dits hehehehe
Hi, Rose
The public transpo article should appear soon. Did you know that when I was doing my initial research for Go Baguio!, I called LTFRB to check how many jeepneys and taxis Baguio had, and they passed me around six times and finally said that the person in charge was on vacation?! They insisted that the licenses were not a matter of public record! In your words, WTF?!
Hi Tina
Yes, our million peso “Pine Tree” still stands at the Session road rotunda, sad to say. And do you remember how may jeeps you could ride that passed the BGH area? Let’s see… Camp 7-8, Camp 4-5-6, Camp 1-2-3, Bakakeng Norte, Bakakeng, Green Valley, Crystal Cave (my take on this is that only one jeepney line should pass Marcos Highway, and only one should pass Kennon on the Baguio Side), and despite that, the traffic there has always be light.
And hello Connie!
Yup, this is where I explain Baguio away, among other things. Much as Go Baguio! shows the Baguio I love, there are just some things you cannot say in a travel website.
Baguio’s still one of the best places to visit. To live in … well, I am so rooting for Dumaguete these days! Hahaha
And yup, K looks exactly like D. She’s the one who taught me, through the Mojofly site, that blogs are not diaries, while you’re the one who inspired me to blog.
This is such an exercise in restraint though … I guess a happy family life has made you finally, truly pink. Hahaha
Baguio was built for 25,000 people only. it now has 400,000 people.
It’s too overpopulated. We don’t need more siedwalks or whatever infrastructure…. what Baguio needs right now is an IMMIGRATION control boll/ordinance/law… and should seriously be implemented. Naguio has deteriorated a lot and it is because of the high immigration rate to the city. In 1990, the population was just 120,000.
I wouldn’t agree to a Metropolitan area as it would endanger the ancestral lands of the people in neighboring towns. In Baguio alone, the Ibalois have been fighting for their right to their lands in CJH, PMA, and even the residential areas of Kias and Loakan.
The city should discourage immigration, really.
One problem is the proliferation of PUVs… The city govt should also encourage walking by banning vehicles INSIDE the CBD… at least, pag ganun, no choice mga tao kundi maglakad. Just look at the laziness of recent immigrants and lowlanders who are not permanent residents here. harrison from slu maingate na nga lang, nagjijeep pa. laziness! maraming magrereklamo especially the lowlanders who are used to their tricycle method… but hey… it’s a better alternative than adding flyovers because come another earthquake..we will suffer the consequences of having too many infrastructures.
Hi, BetelNut. I know that your sentiments reflect those of most long-time Baguio residents and I agree with you wholeheartedly. My next article will be a response to all the points that you raised here. I know I said I intended the next posts to be a little more light-hearted but the world has to know also what’s really going on in Baguio.
Hi there. dropping by via chateau. anyway, I also blogged about this BGH flyover. Not sure if the city is willing to cut it’s losses. It’s got too much at stake and it will definitely lose face if they gave up on it. Still, I don’t know why they ventured on such a project to begin with. Is it because of….say, politics?
Are comments moderated b/c my comment seems to have disappeared. Anyway, my point can be encapsulated in my entry on the BGH flyover here
Welcome, Wil, and thank you for dropping by.
Of course it’s politics! The traffic in that area was pretty smooth. I think our local government officials should conduct urban planning studies before they waste money on projects like these. Haaaay, Baguio.
This wasn’t supposed to be approved in the first place, no thanks to Domogan for persuading GMA that Baguio needs this. In addition to your last suggestion, I think it would have been more effective if the Baguio government moves the bus terminal to another location; this would help decongest traffic a lot. It was a good move by the Victory Bus Company to move part of their terminal to the engineer’s hill area and I believe the government should follow this example. If the existing bus terminal would be converted to an open road, I bet there will be no traffic in the city proper.
I agree with you, Jaycee. They insist it’s a National Highways project but I do remember Domogan and Vergara defending this project like crazy. Yaranon was completely opposed to the project, Bautista will allow it to proceed (see Mayor favors Baguio Flyover Project).
Victory moved out because the City Treasurer was charging such high terminal fees for the use of Governor Pack Road, they felt it would be cheaper to have their own terminal (and I must say that their terminal is clean and pretty — how nice it would be if their Metro Manila terminals followed suit). In fact, the City built a satellite office at Governor Pack just for the collection of terminal fees. I believe terminals should be at the outskirts, not in the middle of town. Marcos Highway would be a good location.
And while we’re at it, they should also ask the buses to move out of Burnham Park, particularly the entrance to the athletic bowl. There’s one really easy way to do this, given political will, ban buses from entering the Central Business District.
hei.. just read ur comments.. can we u help me with my feasibility study? i got does baguio need the bgh fly over as toppic.
I live near the area and the traffic there is not as bad as in Magsaysay. The answer to your blogtitle is no. What creates traffic there is the fact that those a-hole bus companies had made it their unloading zone. We need this flyover? Come on. I think we need to deploy traffic enforcers to apprehend these buses — and it does not even cost millions! Now we have a half-baked flyover which looks so ugly.
to katrina… yes you are right.. i think they should not turn it into a n unloading area… plus the design of the flyover sucks.. they did not even considered the circulation of vehicles… as for urban planning studies.. it must also be conducted .. ( O BAKA NMN SABIHIN NG GOV’T NA GASTOS LANG YAN!!!!) there are more important things to be done than this flyover.. i live near bgh ang it’s not even traffic…(only during holidays lang naman eh…ang foresight ko dyan lalo lng magkkgulo ang mga motorista pag tapos n yang flyover n yan.. yun lang…. it’s only politics…..
may kickback kasi ang mga politicians kaya naimplement ang construction nyan… also ,, problema rin kasi ang mga motorista… marami yung d mapagbigay…. basta go nalang sila ng go… anyayabang p… yan ang isang cause of traffic here in baguio….