Baguio Insider

Whoever said, “The Truth Shall Set You Free!” was absolutely right.

The Filipino is now finding his voice, long silenced by Marcos during Martial Law. We thought we got our voices back after Marcos fled, and started singing with discordant voices in the decades after — democracy, economic prosperity, freedom of the press! We went wild in the 20 years after Marcos, basking in the new-found freedom but not really knowing what to do or where to go.

We felt power, we could say and do anything we wanted! Even as ordinary citizens. In Baguio, our children could maim and kill others with weapons and we had the power to cover it up. We could even have a city full of garbage and justify that anomaly by calling it an environmental move to educate the citizens about waste segregation. We could lure children away from their parents and ‘educate’ them by stuffing them into unsafe buildings and leave them to fend for themselves in a city that cares only for the money they will pay the schools, the dormitories and the carinderias. In Baguio, we could build a house, or even a restaurant or hotel on protected forest land.

Then things got bad. We heard so many voices, did not know whom to follow, except the ones who spoke the loudest. But they used rhetoric not reason, they used money instead of words, they spoke with raw power not moral authority.

“Give Baguio back to the people!” (While I get 30 units of million-peso golf shares in my name so that I will not contest the Camp John Hay privatization nor will I push to collect rentals)

“Give Baguio back to the people” (While we grant SM City Baguio a moratorium on business taxes for 5 years while those who have been doing business here for 20 years have their taxes automatically increased by the city treasurer regardless of a decrease in income)

“Give Baguio back to the people” (While I divert farm-to-market road funds to complete my over-priced flyover that will cause even more traffic for Baguio)

“Give Baguio back to the people!” (While I ask the President to give me ownership of Burnham Park so I can build a parking building and another market on it, and maybe, even sell it to a private entity for a theme park because all I will need is the consent of the Department of Tourism)

Then things got worse. We started coping by formulating new truths. “Ganyan talaga.” (That’s really how things work); “Finder’s fees,” “commissions.” “facilitation fees” replaced words like theft, unjust enrichment, bribery and corruption.

“Comment at Baguio Insider: “We cannot blame ____ . He only has two more years in office (to get his edification and concretization projects to push through)

Everything was about compromise, too, including principles:

“The governor must be awarded distributorship of our liquor products otherwise he will not allow our trucks to deliver to his province”

“My child really wants to be an accountant but let her take up nursing so she can go abroad”

“My car is a smoke belcher but for just an extra P500 I can get it passed by the Emissions Testing Center as suitable for the roads”

“It’s alright for Baguio, which once held the world record for rainfall, to have a suffer a huge water shortage while the Mayor plans to build more flyovers, while elected officials plan other ways and means to get issued cars.”

“It’s alright for me to send my child to a school that has experienced three fires in 19 years because during the last one, no one died anyway.”

I was told that things had to get so bad before they could get better. In other societies, any small threat to their basic freedoms, as a matter of principle, would mean citizens going cross-country at great personal sacrifice to make their voices heard. In the Philippines, we tend to wait for that “Sobra Na!” (Too Much) stage before we act. We are again at the point of crying. “Sobra Na!” but discover that while we were drowning out the voices of others with our own, we no longer know which voice to listen to.

The Truth is now what the Filipino wants. Finally. We question the truth defined by others which do not match our own, we are also beginning to see the damage caused by decades we have spent speculating instead of investigating. We find that something does not sit well with us these days but can’t quite put our finger on it.

“If Baguio has a water shortage, where do the myriad water delivery trucks get their supply and why can’t the city tap into these springs and provide water for all?”

“If certain areas in Baguio are suffering from air pollution, why did the politicians during a public hearing, blame it on 30 scooters and not on the jeepneys, half of which have no legal right to be on the streets, half of which are not necessary, and which half numbers 4,000 extra jeepneys?”

On a national scale, why do we have the most beautiful malls in Asia while a majority of our people live in hunger and squalor? How can people afford brand new Jaguars and Porches while a majority push ‘caretons’ and pedal pedicabs? Where do politicians get all that money to spend on their electoral campaigns? How come, despite my best efforts, I am earning less and less while others who do not work as much as I do ‘earn’ more and more? Why are people killing each other for the same position? Why are we sending away our mothers to work abroad as maids, and our daughters as nursemaids?

For these are the truths about the Philippines:

• We are rich in natural resources
• We are rich in human resources
• We live on fertile soil
• We have fish for food surrounding our 7,107 islands
• We have a lot of rain for potable water
• We have a lot of wind and water power that we can harness for electricity
• We are God-fearing all
• We are intelligent and industrious
• We are kind and we are good

Why then, we ask now, are we poor?

Because our spirit as a nation is impoverished. Because we have traded the truth for material wealth, we have traded family for financial freedom, we have turned our backs on the truth and substituted it with our own realities.

But there are small voices nevertheless who have been freed by the truth. And through their bravery, they will free us all.

In Baguio, finally, a few people have had too much, too! Our posts have started to receive a larger number of comments. We have been receiving personal emails by folks who are willing to tell the truth about certain events or hearings that have been mismanaged or railroaded by public officials. These small voices are still afraid. After all, the bearers of truth have always been martyred.

Others have demanded quite openly to get to the bottom of things (read: truth) about events like the Universaity of Baguio (UB) Fire.

And we will have to reassure them that there really is only one truth every time. That we will support what is true, for the truth is always right. That we are one with them in uncovering the truth, for the truth is what we want. And they will inspire others to come forward, too. Thanks to Jun Lozada who has shown the world a portrait of the brave Filipino. Who can hold his own while being assaulted by more powerful liars. Who has shown us that truth is the only weapon we need.

Then we can finally be free.