Domogan and Company: “Baguio Water Costs P35/unit”

Recently I received an email from Norma Panglao Chaudhari, a co-member of the e-group at Baquio Web International (baguiowebinternational@ yahoogroups.com), that contained the following interview with our government officials, led by Congressman Mauricio Domogan, who made a recent visit to the USA:

John Dyte (email address withheld) wrote:

Congressman Domogan, Philippine Consul General Marciano A. Paynor, Jr., and Baguio City Counselors (sic) Betty Lourdes Tabanda, Nicasio Aliping, Erdolfo Balajadia as well as Ramon Dacawi as part of their itinerary of visiting Vallejo, a sister city of Benguet, paid a visit to BIBAK Northern California today at the residence of Joel and Emily Aliping in El Sobrante, California.  They were accompanied by their local sponsors, the Baguio Californians.

The pictures to this event can be found at the link below:
http://sagada. com/cpg/thumbnai ls.php?album= 160

It was a beautiful 75 degrees Fahrenheit sunny day. The street to Joel’s house was packed and people had to walk uphill to get to the house while Joel directed parking. Pinikpikan, as always, was served along with lechon and other good stuff. The young ladies served salted salmon hors d’oeuvres and other goodies. Dorothy and gang brought grapes from their neighbors backyards. Lots of good food which I cannot all mention.  I saw huge oysters over the grill.

Our singers were there, reliable as ever, making the crowd scream. Line dancing was being taught and of course the gongs and solibao filled the air.

We had a question and answer event with the dignitaries and the questions and information shared is worth sharing, in these forums.

1. General Consul Paynor invited everyone to come to Baguio next year on September 1, 2009 for the centennial anniversary of Baguio. He is offering the services of his office in coordinating large scale vacation trips back home during that celebration. Consul Paynor is a graduate of City High.

2. Congressman Domogan shared that they are working on implementing visa processing facilities in Baguio to serve the Cordillera region.

3. Someone, of course, asked about the garbage problem in Baguio. The cause as most people probably know is that the land fill in Irisan caused damage during a storm and could not longer be used. If I heard correctly, they are still scouting various areas and even send the garbage to Capas, Tarlac. There are numerous restrictions to implementing a garbage solution and I gathered that they were still working. There was no definitive answer on an intermediate solution.

4. Another raised the question of water and while the dicussions was long on this one, bottomline that I heard from Congressman Domogan was that even if Benguet could supply the water, the cost would be in the neighborhood of Php42 per certain unit while currently the cost is Php35 within Baguio. For Benguet to supply the water, the cost would have to be in the neighborhood of Php65 which is still better than private water deliveries of greater than Php120.

5. Another question was asked about a project by senior Baguio residents and senior Baguio expatriates  to put an obelisk somewhere which contained the names of early Baguio residents/pioneers. Congressman Domogan mentioned that despite the money he tried to allocate there were several roadblocks to its location. Bottomline, it is not going to happen, but Councilor Tabanda mentioned that it was in the program of the committee handling the 2009 centennial celebration but could not offer any more than that.

6. Councilor Tabanda mentioned that they were allocating some land for a flower bed in the area around Imelda Park for sister cities of Baguio. The sister city or local organizations near the sister city should coordinate on funding the design and building of the flower bed.

7. Congressman Domogan was asked about running for Mayor of Baguio again but said he will cross that bridge when he gets to it but was not really looking for that.

8. Congressman Domogan mentioned that the Philippine budget was around 1.4 trillion pesos. I was not I remembered correctly and tried to check that online and it was already in Forbes.

http://www.forbes. com/afxnewslimit ed/feeds/ afx/2008/ 08/25/afx5356535 .html

God Bless
Norma Panglao Chaudhari
Mclean, Virginia

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