Seeing green, finally

Mayor Mauricio Domogan’s declaration that he wants a local Environment Code passed before the entry of the new-elected city council on June 30 is a far cry from his “I cannot do anything” stand on the Luneta Hill issue involving the city’s already biggest mall’s unwavering desire to remove one of the very few remaining green covers in the central business district for an expansion project. And regardless of one’s political leanings, we must welcome and support the mayor’s efforts to fast-track the passage of this code. It’s about time.

The proposed ordinance is supposed to be “all-encompassing” and will cover a wide range of issues, let’s begin with one: land management and classification. I am hoping that this provision will result in the clearing up of grey areas in our existing zoning ordinances. For example, owing to its size and clientele, SM City Baguio is undeniably a regional mall, which should merit a C3 classification. Luneta Hill is a C1 area. But City Planning and Development Office OIC Evelyn Cayat was able to convince the court that heard the environmental case filed against SM, by zigzagging through the loopholes of the existing zoning ordinance, that a project involving a 4-storey commercial complex and a 5-storey parking building that will be added to the already imposing structure on Luneta Hill is allowed in a C1 area. She even pointed out that the Baguio Country Club is the only entity classified as a C3 structure. We don’t need an urban planning expert to know which between SM City Baguio and the Baguio Country Club generate much more pedestrian and vehicular traffic, which requires more power to operate and which impacts the city’s environment more.

Another very important component of the proposed ordinance is the “preservation of parks and heritage sites, urban greenery and architecture.” This should hopefully put an end to the rampant wasteful multi-million-peso concretization of our public parks. Erecting concrete buildings cementing much of a botanical and a rose garden is senseless. Not to mention tasteless. Gardens need earth space and greenery, not hallow blocks. The preservation, and more importantly the enhancement of urban greenery is essential to our quality of life. It is in fact, a right enshrined in our constitution: “The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.”

I am quite apprehensive though about the provision that would involve the non-issuance of building permits to construction projects without rain-harvesting facilities. With the rapid urbanization that Baguio is currently undergoing, having all those imposing hotels, condominiums, commercial buildings and others have their own rainwater harvesting facility might impact on the city’s water table. The mayor laments that much of rainwater the Baguio receives gets washed out to the sea due to our lack of rainwater-harvesting infrastructure. Trees, forests and watersheds are the best rainwater harvesting facilities, having more of these will keep most of the water within our midst and available to the residents of Baguio – particularly to ordinary households that cannot build four thousand cubic-meter water reservoirs that SM City Baguio plans to have in their expansion project. In this area, it’s about time the Baguio Water District step up and start justifying the generous salaries that their executive have allotted for themselves.

Bottomline: the proposed Environmental Code is an urgent matter that must be taken up and passed at the soonest possible time. And hopefully in consultation with the people – after the Jadewell, SM, Uniwide, Protech issues and others, we now know that it’s not wise to keep this within the walls of the city’s executive and legislative offices.

And this could also be an opportunity for our councilors who acted like SM City Baguio’s counsels during the public hearings conducted on the expansion project to redeem themselves and show us that they do have a heart and in it is the welfare of our people today and this city’s future generation.

Who won?

On the night of the canvassing of votes at the Baguio Convention Center, the loudest sound that can be heard in the area did not come from inside the hall where the general public was barred from entering and only Comelec personnel, poll watchers and members of the media were allowed to witness the counting of votes. It came from a loudspeaker just a few meters from the entrance – a bingo game was ongoing and apparently an election was not reason enough for the operators of the gambling game nor the supposed beneficiary (we were told that it was a “Barangay fund-raising effort”) to show some respect and give way to the process that is the heart of our democracy.

We called the attention of a policeman on duty, who escorted us to their commander who was slouched on a chair on one side with his feet up, texting. “May permit yata sila e,” he said to and without looking at us. “Yata.” I asked, would you like to get up and check if they do have one? He didn’t reply. A city councilor who happened to be in the area politely reminded the commander that gambling is prohibited during elections, whether they had a permit or not. Still no reaction from the commander. I said, “hindi po ba nakakahiya ang Baguio na habang nagbibilang tayo ng boto ng taumbayan ay may pasugalan sa tabi ng bilangan?”

So what happened inside? Out of 153, 423 registered voters in Baguio City, the total number of votes cast for mayor was only 86,945, which meant that 66,478 did not bother or were unable to choose the city’s top executive in this election. For congressman, there were 86,976 votes cast, and 66,447 missed the chance to choose their representative in congress. In Baguio, just over half of the voting population, 57%, made their voices heard.

The incumbent mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, garnered 43, 218 votes – or more than 4,000 votes less than his total in 2010. Opposition candidate Jose Molintas got 39,073, or over 12,000 more than what he got three years ago. The decrease in Domogan’s votes and the overwhelming increase in Molintas’ were not enough though to unseat the incumbent, or steer this city towards a new, better, direction.

So who won inside the Baguio Convention Center? Mauricio G. Domogan. And while only 28% of us wanted Mauricio Domogan to continue to be at the helm, the rest of us, the 72% who either did not vote for him or at all, would have to rally behind him in every just, righteous and honest endeavor that would help make Baguio a better place for all of us,or in front of him whenever an attempt is made to put the welfare of the people and this city in peril. 

So who won in that bingo game just outside the Baguio Convention Center? I don’t know, but I know that the people of Baguio lost there and the people behind the travesty just spat on the face of our democracy and the dignity of our beautiful city.

Twilight in Baguio

Should I list down my choices in this year’s senatorial and local elections? No, I won’t. It’s not about who our choices are, it’s about how and why we arrived at them.

In 1995, I was in Baguio, not as a tourist nor as a young kid tagging along my mother in one of her frequent visits to artist friends in the City of Pines, but as an actor in a foreign film production being shot here. Our locations were Binga and Ambuklao Dams and the mountainsides somewhere in Marcos Highway in the general area where the viaduct is today.

At the end of one particular shooting day, I was with my co-actors on the side of Marcos Highway waiting for the van that would bring us back to our respective cottages at Camp John Hay. The fog cleared to reveal one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The usually rowdy bunch of theatre actors were silenced by the heavenly spectacle. And as in a stage play’s closing scene, the fog started rolling in again just as the sun disappeared on the horizon.

The van arrived just as a gentle rain poured - twilight in Baguio became more surrealistic, magical when experience through a sheet of rain and wisps of fog. The scent of pine welcomed us in Camp John Hay and soon there I was all bundled up in a thick sweater and a bonnet, being warmed by a mug of freshly brewed Benguet coffee at the nearby Lone Star Steak House and I realized right there and then: this is where I want to spend most, if not the rest of my life.

Baguio City. In less than a year my wife and I moved here.

We did stage plays mostly at the Bulwagang Juan Luna of the U.P. Baguio, jammed with hand drums around a bonfire at Café by the Ruins, floated altars at the Burnham Lake every July 16 for those who perished during the earthquake of 1990, attended exhibit openings and went on impromptu picnics on hillsides along Loakan Road, read books lying on the grass at the Rose Garden. We took walks, lots and lots of long walks – in the rain, under the sun, picking up twigs and fallen branches along the way home to light up the fireplace in the evenings.

One day I heard about the impending turn-over of Camp John Hay to a private consortium posed to turn it into a “world-class” tourist destination – I attended the public hearings and rallies denouncing the plan. Soon after, the city woke up to find its streets surrendered to, again, a private firm that charged citizens P20.00 for parking along the road that are supposed to be “beyond the commerce of man” and those who refused to pay had their cars towed. I joined demonstrations against the then planned mall on a hill and casino at Mountain Breeze theatre in Camp John Hay. The people won some battles, lost some.

The war is still raging, 182 trees are being threatened on Luneta Hill by a greedy corporation, so are hundreds more by a realtor on Marcos Highway, people died and homes got buried under a garbage-slide and the people have been told over and over again that they, the ones in power, "can't do anything."

The war is still raging, with the people and a sustainable future on one side, and a corrupt political system that encourages corporate greed at the expense of the welfare of the people and the city itself on the other.

I know which side I’m on in this war – I’m on the side of picnics under the sun, long walks around town, the scent of pine, a vibrant arts and culture scene, and reading books while lying on the grass. A beautiful, progressive sustainable city in harmony with its natural environment – that is the key principle that guided me in choosing the city’s future leaders on election day, because I want to do all I can to pass on a Baguio that is as beautiful if not more so to my children and their children.

Love songs, trees, a few good men and women

A voice outside a popular watering hole along Session Road sings of love lost accompanied by the loveless sound of a midi keyboard. His voice is occasionally drowned out by the noise of politicians’ promises in the form of soulless jingles coming out of mono speakers mounted on top of jeepneys. A lot of these politicians just don’t get it, the blind singer can see through the charades I’m sure.

A van was parked in between two empty slots along Session Road, I politely asked the driver if he can move the vehicle a bit so two cars can park instead of just one. “Mahihirapan akong lumabas e,” he said. His van had speakers on the roof and posters all over it proclaiming a congressional candidate to be among the “few good men” in Baguio. Nahihirapan akong maniwala.

What’s up with the trees on Luneta Hill? Since the lower court dismissed the case we filed in our effort to save the trees from SM City Baguio’s backhoes to give way to their expansion project, we have been waiting for the case to move at the Court of Appeals. In the meantime, we’re wondering if SM would like to let us know if the initial 49 trees they were able to uproot survived at all. The remaining trees on a hillside directly above a university and a high school nearby don’t look healthy too.

The Save 182 Movement will remain apolitical and will not directly endorse any candidate in the coming elections. We were united by a cause – to save the trees on Luneta Hill. And we would like to remain united, and politicizing the group by directly getting involved in the on-going campaign would be divisive as each of the individual members and allied people’s organizations have different political agenda.

We do endorse a common cause though – the protection of the city’s natural environment and heritage. And there are some candidates out there who have championed that cause. We’re taking note.

I posted a photo online of a guy, obviously a foreigner whom I learned is an artist who has been living in Baguio for a long time now, sweeping at the Post Office Mini-Park. I watched him for the next hour making sure not a single cigarette butt or piece of plastic was left. Then with a bucket of water and a tabo, he ended his morning ritual by watering the flowering plants around the park. One “taga-Baguio” commented on the photo I posted, “may bayad ‘yan.” As I write this, close to 500 have “liked” the photo, and close to a hundred have shared it with others. If only half of them would pick a broom too…

If only half of them would actually pick up a broom.

A Kanser Waryor's Battle With Dusk

I was a young boy when we visited who I was told was my great-grandmother, my maternal grandfather's mother. She was lying on a hospital bed with all these tubes going in and out of her, one ran through a gaping hole on her throat. That was how she breathed air, I was told. My mother sat beside her and I couldn't make out what she was saying to the old lady - almost everyone else seemed to be whispering. The sun had just set but it wasn't quite dark yet, and I was scared but all the grown-ups were busy whispering to each other so I just kept to myself looking out the window watching the surrounding trees outside become silhouettes. Up to now I get this deep feeling of being alone at dusk.

She was most probably in her 70's when we lost her to cancer. Of the lungs, I learned later. She was a heavy smoker just like my grandfather was, who succumbed to emphysema whose last words to me were "quit smoking," just like mother is and I am now.

A couple of years ago I along with my wife and some friends noticed an unusual lump on one side of my neck. A friend couldn't say it nicer - have it checked, kuya, he said. Another friend of his had the same strange lump, had it checked by a doctor, and she was gone in a matter of weeks due to cancer. Damn, it was dusk again.

I tried to remain calm about it, promised to have it checked by a doctor the following day, but that night was one of the longest nights of my life. What if it was, indeed, cancer? Circumstances seem to point in that direction - a great-grandmother whose life cancer claimed, a grandfather who passed away due to a smoking-related illness too, and I smoked heavily. If it was indeed cancer, how long did I have? How does one live the rest of his life if the end's in sight?

We have a friend we met recently during one of our performances. She came with one that show's guest performer from Manila. They have been going out a few months. She was soft spoken, almost always whispering, and had a permanent pretty smile on her face so bright she could light up a room with it.

She defeated cancer not so long ago, I learned. She was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal Cancer in 2009. After a surgery and a series of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, a CT scan showed no signs of the tumor anymore in 2011 and was declared cancer-free. She was even given the go signal to resume work. She's an engineer, by the way.

Then a recent CT scan revealed that the tumor has recurred, and this time it can't be surgically removed. The doctor recommended more advanced chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She's due to start with that this week.

The lump on my neck, after surgery, turned out to be benign. I am among the luckiest people in the world, I'm alive, and the end's not in sight anymore. Ignorance is bliss.

We wish we can do much more than dedicate an evening of music for her and her cause, but I also know that more than whatever little money we can raise for her the greatest gift we can give is for her to know that she's not alone in this arduous journey. April 30, 2013 at Kikan, Baden Powell Inn, Gov. Pack Road, Baguio City, will be Cai's night. We will be singing songs for her, pray for her, for her healing will be our healing too.

Join us.

And in this temporary moment of darkness, Cai's happiness, her inner joy, her smile can light her way out of it and towards the next day's sunrise. She calls herself a "Kanser Waryor," and we're here to see her win this battle with dusk.

Whatever purpose it may serve

I’m a high school graduate. A few days ago, after almost being denied entry to the Department of Education’s main complex in Pasig for wearing slippers (bawal ang naka-tsinelas dito, a security guard told me), I retrieved the results of a test I took 23 years ago.

I dropped out of second year high school when I was fourteen, auditioned for a play at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and realized that theatre was what I wanted to do and learn about for the rest of my life. Then three years later I learned about the Philippine Educational Placement test – pass that test and you get a high school diploma. I gave it a shot and passed the test.

I barely passed the exam, I remember arriving a full hour late for the test that morning in 1990. A few months later, a teacher at some high school in Pasay handed me a piece of paper with a big smile and, “congratulations, pwede ka nang mag-college.” I lost that piece of paper.

Then a few days ago, we were at the DepEd complex because three of my children needed to take the same test after being home-schooled for years, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to get that piece of paper that said that I was qualified to go to college.

One time, I was one of three choices to be the speaker at a high school graduation in an international school in Baguio. The headmaster vetoed my nomination telling the graduating class that having a high school dropout, and, in his own words, somebody who was “not successful” in life for a speaker was not a good idea. The graduating class then requested to have me speak to them at the last school assembly before the graduation.

I was once offered the position of Production Manager for a reputable theatre company in Manila. But when the executive committee met to discuss my appointment, the then managing director of the company opposed it since I did not have that piece of paper. I resigned before they finished their deliberations.

This past year, I met a city executive who’s a lawyer who said he cannot do anything to save 182 trees from corporate greed; lawyers and government executives who defended one corporate entity’s interest over that of the public’s; a judge who declared that removing 182 trees on a hill will have no significant impact on the environment. There’s a lawyer who’s a local legislator who is said to be a protector of illegal gambling operations in the city and another of illegal squatting in the city’s watersheds; an engineer whose idea of a public garden is more concrete and less earth space; newspaper editors and writers who sell frontpages to the highest bidder; a policeman who drives around town in a motorcycle without a helmet…

… they all have really impressive pieces of paper.

At the bottom of the certification I got from the Department of Education, it says – “This certification has been issued upon the request of Mr. Altomonte for whatever legal purpose it may serve.”

For whatever purpose it may serve, indeed.

Break a leg

When casting a play or a film, this is how I conduct my auditions: I ask actors to prepare a short piece, a monologue. I take note of the following: the actor's choice for an audition piece (why choose that particular story?), sincerity in his delivery and his committment to the material and his performance.

An interview follows, here I try to get a glimpse of the actor's personality. I also try to determine if he'll be as committed to the production as he was to his performance during his audition. His past works hardly matter to me, although it helps to know that he did not abandon a production before for no good reason or was a pain to work with, I'm more interested in what he can deliver NOW.

In the last few days, I've heard candidates present themselves. I will choose my candidates the way I choose artists to work with because at the end of the day, that's how it's going to be: whoever's elected to office are the ones that we , the people, will have to work with to make our home a better place for us today and even better for the next generation.

I will listen to their "audition pieces," it's very important to know what concerns they believe are worth putting at the top of their respective platforms. I have my own list of very important concerns that the city needs now, I shall compare theirs with mine.

I shall take note of their sincerity when delivering their "stories," their commitment to it. If I can't personally talk to them, I'll watch their interviews with other people. From that I should be able to determine if the candidate has the personality to deliver on their promises. And while I am interested in what they can do NOW, I shall take note of their past, their track record: what have they done to address the concerns they are now promising to address if elected? And while this is easier to determine in the case of re-electionists, for all we need to do is look back at the last three years, I am also very much interested in what first-time candidates have done in the past as far as their chosen issues are concerned. Afterall, we don't have to be in power to effect positive changes in our community and if they have done nothing before, I am almost sure they will do nothing even if they get elected.

So, to our candidates, as we say in theater... break a leg!