So you have relocated? Good to know. Let’s do coffee sometime…

However, we should be optimistic and still be positive that maybe change may happen. The City of Baguio has the potential to reclaim its status as one the best cities in the Philippines. However, its inexhaustible supply of acrimony, cynicism and outright selfishness – especially as manifested by the political class has thwarted its aspirations should be addressed first.

Baguio Citizens should rally around constructive reforms aimed at long term solutions and development. Only when the city government and its people embrace disciplined measures can the city achieve lasting prosperity. Who knows? Within the next few years, our city may just emacipate itself from its current quagmires and regains its rightful place one more.

Well then again, I would like our local government to succeed.

Yes, Jessica, and we somehow have to remind them of that fact. We also have to prepare others to take over leadership of the city in the next elections. All the politicians — Bautista and those before him — have not helped the city.

We have to remind folks that even Domogan, though still popular among the clueless masses, rammed that flyover down our throats. And yet he stands to win again in 2010. Tama na!

The thing is, WE THE PUBLIC HAVE THE POWER AND AUTHORITY to change things if we all come together and put in the effort. The government officials were ELECTED into office. They did not inherit or were divinely assigned their positions so that we can’t question or disagree with their actions. In fact, THEY WORK FOR US!!! A fact that they have conveniently forgotten and should be reminded of. They should be putting the needs of the city and her citizens before themselves. Instead, they grow richer from the money the public uses to pay for taxes.

We have to put up with a filthy city with garbage on the streets and poison in the air. We have to put up with congested roads. We have to put up with street vendors clogging the sidewalks and an ancient city market. We have to put up with trees being cut down and squaters encoaching everywhere. We have to put up with pick pockets and robbers. I could go on and on. And now, the question is why? Well, the public servants that we put our faith and trust in to look over our wellfare, are the very same who ignore their duty in their quest for wealth and power. And you know the worst part? We let them.

Yeah you heard me. We let them get away with it. Most of the population is either uneducated as to their rights and powers or are just too indifferent. Just keep your head down and endure for the rest of the term of the current mayor and so forth. Survive and hope that the next elected official will be a better person. Unless we give them no option but to become better people by no longer accepting their current actions, then nothing will change.

It has been ingrained in the Filipino culture to defer to the actions of politicians and even go so far as give them preferential treatment. Look around Baguio and you’ll see signs of such injustice everywhere. Like a no parking zone miraculously becoming a valid parking area just because of a red license plate. And to add insult to injury, it’s not just the elected officials abusing their authority, other public servants have as well like the police. If you’re a driver, then you know just what I mean.

The use their sirens illegally just to cut through the traffic, even driving on the other side of the road. They go through red lights, make illegal U-turns, park wherever they want. How can you possibly trust the police to keep the peace, to enforce laws and to protect your life and property when they can’t follow the same laws they have promised to uphold?

Michelle Obama states in one sentence the type of mindset the Baguio City Government and its public servants should have in order for our city to flourish. She said “…there should be no definition of success without service to others…”

Hotels must be near the tourist attractions. It’s the schools, because they make Baguio look like Quiapo, that must move out.

Progressive schools like Ateneo and UP moved out of Padre Faura half a century ago, because they wanted their students to breathe. No such thing for Baguio schools, though, they just add cement buildings, where there should be quadrangles, fields and parking for the people they stuff in there. SLU is no better, they decided to CEMENT everything!

The schools do not need to be around Session Road and Burnham Park. They should be in Longlong, or in Lucnab or in Beckel. The owners have no vision for even a campus. They’re happy with building clusters. Wow!

I agree about the government buildings, too, because they can be put anywhere, really. But since Baguio is the administrative center, and is a city independent of Benguet, maybe we can move them all to Irisan, including city hall, and turn city hall into a museum. Perfect!

Without commercial centers being developed elsewhere, we will not have a Metro Baguio. Everything can be had in the Baguio City Market and Session Road still, and even with Danny Farinas’s satellite markets, the residents `an only buy the ingredients for lunch there, which is wasteful, as they must go to the center of town anyway for other supplies.

Ok, let’s move SM City Baguio from the city center, too.

Wonderful suggestions and I hope the folks in charge of overpopulating Baguio are listening…