Politicians Warned: Stay Away From Panagbenga

Here are the top news stories from Baguio City today:

1. Baguio does not look kindly upon politicians at Panagbenga
2. Botanical Garden to be renamed in September
3. Drinking & gambling banned in funeral parlors
4. Classic musicale brings out the romance at Burnham Park

If you cannot wait for the weekly local papers here who publish days-old news, the best source is the internet. Of course many folks like me are addicted to Baguio Midland Courier for the classifieds and the opinion columns. The paper is in the newstands by dawn on Sundays and the same news is published on the internet by Tuesday yet (this  version of course does not have the classifieds section).

At the Baguio News & Weather page there is an aggregation of current news stories about the City of Pines that is powered by Google, updated daily, coming from news sources other than the local papers, such as the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, GMA News, Manila Bulletin, ABS CBN News, Sunstar and Midland.  It is good to get the news as it happens, nothing stale about it. 

Politicians are not welcome at the Panagbenga parades

Anthony de Leon, chairman of the Baguio Flower Festival committee, is quoted as saying

“Baguio does not look kindly at politicians joining the parades,” De Leon said during a press conference Monday. He added, it is to the politicians’ disadvantage if they insisted (sic) on marching.

De Leon also said the Committee would only allow Panagbenga sponsors’ tarpaulins on the islands.

“It would be inappropriate for politicians to hang their streamers or banners there,” he said, but adding that it would be the city’s call to remove such.

Mr. de Leon has hit right on the nail! WE HATE POLITICIANS WHO USE THE PANAGBENGA TO PROMOTE THEMSELVES. It is bad enough that we see their faces on posters “this is a project of” and on tv and billboards endorsing commercial products but to have them marching down Session Road or riding down in the back of a truck throwing candies and waving to the crowds leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

WE HATED THE WAY OUR LOCAL POLITICIANS WOULD SUCK UP TO THEM, move the Grand Parades to the afternoon for them, and have the little children march in the rain saying, “The show must go on!”

This year, 2009, is not election year, but of course these people are already campaigning for 2010, and the ballsy warning by Anthony de Leon is very timely. Hats off to Anthony here!

Botanical Garden to change names — yet again

Virgilio Bautista, who was appointed by his nephew, the city Mayor Peter Rey Bautista (see comments below), to head the Baguio Centennial Commission, is changing the name of the Botanical Garden for a year. I guess he feels he can do this because this prime piece of Baguio real estate, second only to Burnham Park (of course we are not counting Luneta Hill on which SM stands or Camp John Hay here because they are in public hands) has changed names in the past. Martial law babies remember it as Imelda Park for a time. Our parents remember it as a zoological and botanical garden complete with African animals.

Bautista said a diorama will be set up with portions of the park tracing its history from the pre-American era, the old Baguio and its residents, the coming of the Americans, the Japanese war and the rebuilding after the second world war and the post-earthquake that saw Baguio rise from the destruction.

He said that talks with Baguio’s sister cities have been made and that each sister city will host a certain period.

The Japanese cities will have the 1940s, while the other cities like Taebek, Korea, for instance, will have a portion as the Koreans have made their presence felt in the city.

Local architectural students will also in (sic) the design, with a sculpture made by Ben Hur Villanueva adorning the entrance of the 16-hectare park.

Virgilio Bautista says they’re planning to spend 13 million for the park, which is way cheaper than the 60 million his nephew gave Metro Waste Services for hauling our trash to Tarlac for a few months last year.

I don’t see why they have to rename it though, just add a tagline “Botanical Garden: Baguio Centennial Park” or something. Of course I have always advocated it be renamed to Igorot or Cordillera Village and be like a mini-Nayong Pilipino like during the time it was Imelda Park and it showcased the different areas of the Cordillera region of the Philippines. This would allow visitors a preview of each of the provinces and tribes right in Baguio City.

If Baguio does not want to do it, then maybe Benguet can create a tourist attraction like it in La Trinidad or something.

The idea of giving the sister cities a lot of focus bugs me. I kinda don’t care about giving the Japanese the 1940s section of the diorama, given the atrocities they committed during their occupation of the Philippines during World War II, or the Koreans, sister city or not, for the atrocities they committed against Filipinos right along with their Japanese cousins. If they’re in charge of that section of Philippine history, we cannot expect them to write it correctly, can we? Because, correct me if I am mistaken, was that gruesome part of history not erased from their own history books?

The city council bans drinking and gambling in funeral parlors

The city council passed an ordinance banning drinking and gambling in funeral parlors to “keep the solemnity of wakes.” The violators will be penalized Php500 for drinking and gambling while the funeral parlors will be fined Php5,000 for allowing it.

Well … this makes for boring, empty wakes, doesn’t it? I can understand removing the drinking because drinking gets people sleepy and groggy and the whole point of being at a wake all night is to keep vigil, accompanying the bereaved, greeting guests, preventing concubines from making a scene or stealing the body.

In my family wakes are celebrations (although we are not into drinking and gambling), with only the funeral Mass being solemn, as we send off family members to join our Creator. They are reunions (oh, my family on both sides is huge) with a lot of laughter and nostalgia. Now I do not see why a city council should insist that wakes be solemn.

For other families, gambling is the way the folks raise money to pay for the funeral expenses, where the players so willingly give the bereaved a percentage of their winnings. Since Filipino wakes are looong (well, there’s always the wait for some relative or money for expenses to come from abroad), these social occasions are marked by food, beverage, a lot of talking and cards — threesomes playing Tong-its, quartets playing pusoy and mahjongg, even little kids are kept busy with a game of bingo (no money involved, of course).

With an ordinance like this, I guess folks will be holding the wakes at home from now own because there is no such prohibition on drinking and gambling there. But the reason folks prefer holding wakes at funeral parlors is so that the family can rest some, because houses are usually built too small these days to accommodate a large casket and all the guests. Plus, the lingering smell of funeral flowers in one’s home is a constant reminder of the loss and folks do not want that.

What I do not understand is this: the ordinance bans these activities only in furneral parlors. What about those wakes that are held in private homes, with the casket almost on the street and the people spilling all over the road in monobloc chairs and tables?

The ordinance does not disallow drinking and gambling there, and although folks will argue that drinking and gambling in public places is provided by other ordinances, I have not witnessed any real prevention or penalization of these activities by law enforcement in all my four decades of life. And those activities are even more dangerous for the safety of passersby. At least in funeral parlors they will be contained indoors, there will be security guards to keep the peace, in case it gets rowdy.

I don’t know, this city council is so unimpressive. It’s like they have to come up with a law because they have nothing better to do except try to impose a fine where they can. This ordinance, in my opinion, is not well thought out.

Phantom of the Opera will be performed on Burnham Park on Valentine’s Day

Now this is as Baguio should be, with activities worthy of the venue. Finally some class injected into the city to raise the sagging spirits of its residents assaulted everyday with Danny Farinas’ commercialism.

Billed as Phantom on the Lake, the theatrical excerpts of the French classic musical, will be the first to be performed on Burnham Lake. It will also be the first stage performance on a lake in the Philippines, according to director-actor Chinggoy Alonzo.

Local artists Glen Gaerlan and lawyer Kay Balajadia are among the top performers playing cameo and secondary lead roles, with Baguio-bred Alonzo on the title role, Christine Allado and Jonathan Badon playing the lead roles.

The Broadway opera is part of the month-long Panagbenga Flower Festival 2009 celebrations. Before the 7 p.m. musical, a fluvial parade at Burnham Lake will be staged in the morning to complete a whole-day family treat on Valentine’s Day.

So for visitors like Nestor, who chose to come up o Valentine’s Day instead of the Grand Parades, this is good news! Of course SM City has all sorts of mall tours and musical performances in a generally noisy atmosphere for Valentines, but an outdoor evening concert in Burnham Park by Baguio talents is WOW!!!

I am so looking forward to this!

Again, WOW!!!

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