Dear tourists/visitors currently in Baguio City

Dear tourists/visitors currently in Baguio City:

1. You are not caught in a traffic jam, you are one of the reasons there's a traffic jam. Take the jeep, or better yet, walk around town and leave your cars wherever you're staying. That way, we lessen the cars on the road, and in the process, the pollution in our home, and you get to meet us, the people of Baguio and see how friendly and welcoming we are when our city's not being trashed.

2. Bring reusable bags wherever you go, because let's face it, you would want a couple of jars of Ube or Strawberry jam, a bonnet or two, that Baguio City shirt, or a couple of ukay-ukay items. These things are usually put in single-use plastic "sando" bags, and you'll most likely to leave that in our city and not take it with you wherever you came from. And in case you didn't know, waste management isn't one really among our city officials' expertise. So don't add to the haul we need to take all the way to far away provinces kind enough to accommodate our garbage.

3. Stop asking "where are the Igorots?" You're surrounded. Yeah, the old folks in native attire at the entrance of the Botanical Gardens are Igorots, most vendors at the market and the pony boys at Wright Park are too, so are the carvers at Asin Road, most probably the guy driving your cab or jeep, or the owner of that Hummer or that BMW, or this or that hotel... did I say you're surrounded? Some are in g-strings, others are in suits... This is Baguio, a melting pot of different cultures including the different indigenous groups in the Cordilleras collectively known as Igorots.

4. No, The Banaue Rice Terraces isn't anywhere near here. You have a smart phone? Go to maps.google.com and you'll see.

5. Our taxi drivers are honest, they will give your change down to the last peso. But don't be a cheapskate and tip them well.

6. Do not smoke along Session Road and in our parks. There's an ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places. Better yet, don't smoke, period. And that e-cigarette? Yeah, we don't care if you call it vaping, it's still smoking to us.

7. Don't be too loud when you get back to your transient homes... you're on vacation, we're not. We live here and we have work early tomorrow morning and we don't need to hear your version of My Way until midnight. And remember that Baguio is teeming with world-class vocalists, so unless you are too, keep the volume down.

8. We do a lot of tree planting around here, so watch your step when walking along trails, you might step on a pine seedling that takes decades to become a tree.

9. There's more to Baguio than Wright Park, Botanical Garden and Mines View. I suggest you also visit the nearby towns, go down Asin Road to check out the carvers' village, Ditch Mines View and take a drive towards Itogon instead to see what the mines really look like, go up Mt. Kabuyao and view the majesty of Baguio from up there, etc.

10. If the Christmas decorations around the Central Business District, particularly the supposed Christmas tree at the top of Session Road make you cringe, please know that most of us don't like it too. I don't think anyone does, not even the people who put it up or the city officials who approved the budget and design for these.

P.S. We also don't like Joel Cruz's ugly house in Camp John Hay.