Ang mga tunay na bayani ng bayan ko

Sila yung nililigawan ng mga pulitiko kapag may eleksyon, dahil sa kanila nanggagaling ang mas nakararaming boto. Sila yung pinapangakuan ng trabaho, pabahay, pagbabago… na madalas ay nakakalimutan kapag napanalunan na ang halalan. Madalas bilugin ang kanilang mga ulo, papaasahin ng mga pulitikong gaganda ang buhay nila kapag sila’y binoto.

Sila rin yung pibagbabantaan ng sakit o kamatayan kapag nagtangka silang ipahayag ang kanilang tunay na niloloob.

Kasama sila sa dalawampu’t limang milyong kababayan natin na nabubuhay sa mas mababa pa sa singkwenta pesos araw-araw, na sapat limang para sa isang kilong bigas at ilang pirasong galunggong o tuyo.

Sila yung pumupuno ng jeep, dala-dala ang bayong para mamalengke, o si bunso upang ihatid sa eskwela (nakakandong ang bata, para tipid sa pamasahe), o papasok sa trabahong kung saan hindi sapat ang tinatanggap upang buhaying ang kanilang pamilya ng marangal at maginhawa.

Sa Baguio, sila yung hinahabol ng mga tauhan ng pamahalaan kapag hapon, sa Session Road, sa overpass, sa Mansion House, itinatakbo ang mga kung ano-anong paninda para hindi makumpiska dahil bawal hanapbuhay na napili nila – ang maglako ng prutas, gulay o kahit ano’ng may halagang pwedeng ibenta para makapghain ng katiting na hapunan sa mesa. Karamihan kasi sa kanila’y hindi nakatanggap ng sapat edukasyon, kaya limitado rin ang alam nilang gawin upang mabuhay. Sa ilalim ng Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas, ang edukasyon ay karapatan ng bawat Pilipino.

Sila rin yung binubusinahan ng Pajero sa tawiran, na para bang wala silang karapatang abalahin ang nagmamay-ari ng sasakyan dahil kailangan ilang tumawid ng lansangan para makarating sa paroroonan. Daanan nila yung binawasan para palakihin ang kalyeng dadaanan ng mga sasakyan.

Sila yung pumupuno ng kahabaan ng Session Road kapag may parada at mga anak nila yung mga nagsasayaw sa ilalim ng init ng araw para makapagbigay aliw sa mga turista at karagdagang kita para sa mga kapitalistang nagmamay-ari ng mga hotel, restawran, inuman at iba pa – karamihan sa mga lugar na ito bawal ang naka-tsinelas.

Gusto nilang magpagawa ng paradahan ng mga sasakyan sa isang pasyalan dito sa Baguio – ang Melvin Jones Football Grounds, para mas maginhawaan ang mga mayayamang nagmamay-ari ng sasakyan. Tuwing umaga sa oras ng pagpasok sa eskwela, ang mga estudyanteng may kahirapan ay kailangang maglakad ng mas malayo dahil bawal ang mga jeep sa kahabaan ng Gen. Luna habang ang mga hinahatid ng mga pribadong kotse ay naihahatid ng kanilang mga tsuper hanggang sa pintuan mismo ng paaralan. Marami sa kanila ang nanganganib na matibag ang mga tahanan, dahil wala silang titulo para sa lupang kinatitirikan ng kanilang bahay at sa mata ng pamahalaan, iskwater.

Ngunit sila ang nagpalaya sa ating bayan nang sila'y mag-alsa laban sa mga mananakop. Sila rin ang pumuno ng bawat pulgada sa EDSA upang patalsikin ang diktaturya sa ating bayan. Sila yung gumawa ng bahay mo, nagmamaneho ng sasakyan mo, nag-aalaga ng mga anak mo, naglalaba ng mga damit at naglilinis ng bahay mo, nagtatanim ng kinakain mo, nagpapalitada ng daanan mo... sila ng mga tunay na bayani ng bayang ito.

At habang patuloy ang pandarambong ng mga magnanakaw sa gobyerno, patuloy rin silang maghihirap. Marami silang gusting ipahayag sa mga may kapangyarihan, ngunit dahil nga wala silang kapangyarihan, madalas hindi sila pinakikinggan. Ang inilalathala ng mga pahayaga’t istasyon ng radyo’t telebisyon e yung mga naka-barong, mataas ang posisyon sa gobyerno’t lipunan, yung mga may titulo ang pangalan.

Ngunit kahit hindi nila sadyang ihayag ang kanilang sinasaloob, ang kanilang mga pangarap, mithiin, mga hinaing, hindi naman talagang kailangan – huwag tayong magbingi-bingihan dahil umaalingawngaw ang kanilang taghoy sa bawat sulok ng lipunan.

Three mayors and a park

Alfonso Tabora, former and the last appointed Mayor of Baguio City, whose administration in 50’s would be remembered for its flagship program: the rebuilding and re-greening of the City of Pines that was then still reeling from the carpet bombing it received from the US Air Force during the liberation of the city from the Japanese, built wells in different parts of the city to provide the community with access to free, clean, potable water. One of those wells still serve the city to this day - Baguio Water District water delivery trucks could be seen every day drawing water from a pipe located somewhere off Burnham Park along Kisad Road.

“A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring, or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers,” Wikipedia tells us. That’s one of the amazing things about nature, it provides for systems that in turn provide us humans with what we need to survive. Water evaporates, goes way up in the sky, evaporates and returns to earth in the form of precipitation. Some of that water nourish those colourful blooms and magnificent trees that surround Burnham Park, and the rest, those same trees store underground but not too far down so those BWD trucks can continue to collect water easily from the area for delivery to your homes.

The rainwater that fall on the concrete streets around the park flow along the canals and into the sewers, or towards lower lying areas. If the amount of water falling from the sky is greater than the amount of water those canals and sewers can handle, then the water collects on the surface and we experience floods. But thanks to the natural wide open spaces in the area, much of the rainwater is kept off our streets and absorbed by the earth.

Pour concrete in an area that naturally absorbs water and you deprive the flora in the area of much needed life-giving water. We only have to look at what happened to the trees that were imprisoned inside concrete cages at the Baguio Botanical Garden, a.k.a. Centennial Park to know what’s going to happen. Within weeks after the construction of that concrete box at the park, those trees started dying. They’re all dead now.

Pour concrete on a significant part of the Melvin Jones Football Grounds that acts as an aquifer and we don’t have to be scientists or environment experts to know what may happen. Much of the water that may otherwise be absorbed and stored underground will now remain on the surface. Water stored during the rainy soon that those trees access during the dry season to live and sustain life will instead be wasted.

You suddenly deny the area of that much water, and you disturb the ecological balance of the area. Trees and plants dry out, and eventually die. To some of us, it could merely be one tree, but to the thousands, even millions of smaller beings, insects, bugs, worms, etc., a tree is their whole universe. One tree dies and millions of other life forms die with it. What happens when not just one but two, three or a dozen trees die? How about 182 trees? Do the math – a single tree absorbs an average of 48 lbs. of harmful carbon from the air yearly, and provide enough oxygen for two human beings. How about the fact that trees help reduce excessive water runoff that cause floods in lower lying areas and act as natural pollution filters that keep our rivers and other water sources clean?

In one conversation at the height of the campaign season for the 2010 elections, former Mayor Peter Rey Bautista said that while it’s true that the city’s garbage crisis is a serious problem that needed a long-lasting and sustainable solution, he wanted to focus on what he believed was the bigger crisis that this rapidly urbanizing city faced in the years to come: water. As more and more trees are mowed down, more and more natural open spaces are concreted over, we have less and less water to sustain an ever growing population.

So are we really willing to cede the Melvin Jones Football Grounds, that much earth space that absorb and store that much water and sustain the lives of that many trees so that we have somewhere to park our cars?

Our current Mayor, The Hon. Mauricio Domogan, said that it’s not a done deal yet, this proposed parking facility at the Melvin Jones Football Grounds, that it’s just an idea that’s being explored at the moment. That’s great news for really, I say hold on, dear ladies and gentlemen who like being called honorables, perhaps it’s wise to see how the concreting of much of the Rose Garden will do to the life around it, or if there’s more damage that the concrete building at the Botanical Garden will do on top of the death of a number of trees… before we bring out the backhoes and the cement mixers to destroy the natural balance of the area that has been sustaining life, helping keep us alive and safe from natural calamities, where many of us get some sun, breath unpolluted air, get our water from, where our children play today, where our mothers and fathers and their mothers and fathers before them played.

Age of Aquarius

An open letter to Mayor Domogan (opposing the planned Parking Facility at the Melvin Jones Grounds)

Dear Mayor Domogan:

Upon learning of your proposed construction of an underground parking facility at the Melvin Jones Footbal Grounds, and after studying the plans as you have presented to the media and published in various new publications, I proceeded to initiate an online petition expressing our opposition to the plan (http://www.change.org/ph/mga-petisyon/the-hon-mauricio-g-domogan-mayor-baguio-city-we-oppose-your-plan-to-build-a-parking-facility-at-the-melvin-jones-football-grounds-burnham-park).

The full text of the petition is as follows:

"The renowned architect and city planner Daniel Burnham specifically designed the park for the benefit "of people of moderate means" (Robert Reed, City of Pines: The Origins of Baguio as a Colonial Hill Station). Turning it, or even just portions of it into a parking facility runs directly counter to this vision. Also, constructing an underground parking facility below the football grounds will greatly affect the ecological balance of the area which has already experienced flooding in recent years.

There are other areas in the vicinity that are better suited for your intentions, such as the current parking lot at the former location of the city library.

We hereby declare our opposition to your proposal to forever deface one of the city's enduring vestiges of its glorious past."
While we acknowledge the need for parking facilities in the central business district of Baguio City, there are other suitable locations for such that will not require defacing what may be considered as one of Baguio’s most relevant heritage sites. We also believe that a construction project of such magnitude could have an unimaginable, irreversible adverse impact on our already fragile environment and the ecological balance of the park. It is our conviction that Burnham Park is one of the few remaining public parks that continue to serve the community invaluably, particularly those, as Robert Reed cited in his book, “of moderate means.” Turning the area into a parking facility would serve the interests primarily of the privileged, in direct contradiction with the vision of the city’s pioneers.

With all due respect, Sir, we hereby request, nay, plead, that you reconsider your proposed parking facility at the Melvin Jones Football Grounds. We are also furnishing the office of Coun. Leandro B. Yangot, chair of the Committee on Urban Planning, Lands and Housing a copy of this letter.

Attached is the list of signatories of the online petition, which to date numbers 2,165. We are also initiating an offline petition to gather actual signatures and we shall submit this this to you at the soonest possible time.

In our shared desire to do what’s best for our beloved City of Baguio, I shall remain,

Yours sincerely.

At home… in the theater (review of Tanghalang SLU's "Ang Penitensiya ni Tiyo Renato")

*my column in the March 9, 2014 issue of Cordillera Today, photos courtesy of Lester Romulo Sotelo

I spent Friday night right at home... in the theater, that is. Thanks to Tanghalang SLU director, Dan Rommel Riopay, also the director of the night’s performance, the last show of “Ang Penitensiya ni Tiyo Renato,” for accommodating me and my family. I inquired about tickets the night before, but all tickets were sold out. That makes me very happy for that means theater continues to thrive in the City of Pines.

We entered the theater and were greeted by the wonderful set design by Paul Baldoza and Deomar Tiglao – they beautifully captured the look and feel of a typical home in the lowlands. We chose to sit right in the middle, a good distance away from the stage to have a full view of the set but not too far to miss those small nuances that make a great performance: a tiny smirk, eye movements, those subtle glances that actors do.

The script, a Palanca Award winner written by Luciano Valencia, tells the struggle of one Renato for self-preservation. It reminded me a bit of “Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio” by Paul Dumol. In this family squabble many of us are familiar with, Renato, a child-less widower, was falsely accused of child abuse by his own niece who’s in cahoots with an older brother of the protagonist in an effort to extort money from him.

Sure, it all begins with the script, but an art work is not complete unless it’s experienced by an audience, and this is where a director’s vision and the actors’ sincerity come in. I met the director when he was still a freshman at St. Louis University. Eager to enter the world of theater, he has auditioned for a slot in SLU’s Center for Culture and the Arts and while waiting for the result, he joined my production of “Tonyo/Pepe.” We only got to work together for a couple of weeks since he passed the SLU-CCA audition and didn’t have the time anymore to do an outside production.

In my 18 years as a resident and a theater artist in Baguio, I rarely meet someone who tried out theater while in high school or college and stayed that long. But 15 years since meeting him, Dan’s still there, telling stories on stage. I’m proud to have known him and Baguio’s fortunate to have him.

I’ll get to the one thing that didn’t quite sit well with me out of the way – the use of lapel microphones by the actors. I don’t like lapels in straight plays for they get in the way of the suspension of disbelief particularly when you hear a subtle sigh of an actor 20 meters away from you but with the sound coming to you in full volume on the speakers. And when there’s a technical glitch – a mic going off during a couple of lines, then the illusion is totally ruined. They could’ve perhaps used condenser mics just to reinforce the actors’ voices a little. But I don’t blame them too, student audiences are not known to cooperate and help the actors deliver a good performance – they’re usually chatty and noisy, and I’ve stopped several performances myself when the noise have become simply too much and unbearable. But that’s for another column, back to the performance.

Malena, played by Dyan Britanico and Mikel, played by Handiong Kapuno who happens to be the son of two colleagues in the performing arts, Raffy and Jo Kapuno particularly caught my attention. As a director, and indeed as merely a member of the audience, sincerity is what I look for in an actor’s performance. I have never been a fan of theatrics for theatrics sake, I have a term for that that’s not fit to be printed here, but basically, I like performances where the actors are focused on who they are, what their stories are supposed to be, and nothing else. I love it when their stories break through the fourth wall of the theater to reach right inside of you – and that’s what both Britanico and Kapuno did on stage.

Never mind the shrieks that came out of teenaged girls in the audience when he came out in the final scene without a shirt, Kapuno was there not to show off but to tell a story. And I admired the way I felt every word uttered and every sub-text expressed by Britanico with subtlety, much ease and absolute sincerity.

The rest of the cast delivered too, and it made for a wonderful evening for me and my family. The discussion about the experience lasted during and long after our late dinner. And I congratulate the rest of them – Benjan Rusby Natividad, Trixie Anne Sampayan, Kenneth Aglubo, Mesach Casey Camtugan, Nico John Catallo, Ana Isabel Javier, England Castro, Rronyth Joy Sison and Christine Sagun for telling their respective stories well.

And last but not the least, and they rarely get mentioned in reviews but being one myself early on in my life in the theater, I congratulate the stage managers for a job well done. As we say back then and I still do now, if you hardly noticed their work in a particular performance, that’s because they, the stage managers, did their job very well. And to see another former student, Rainbow Gutierrez, who once attended our group’s creative expression workshop as a little girl, take her bow as one of the stage managers just completed a wonderful evening at home… the theater.
\

Confrontation. Renato (Benjan Rusby Natividad, extreme left) stands up to
his kuya Noni (Kenneth Aglubo, extreme right)

At the fiscal's office. Alex (Nico John Catallo) prepares to refute the testimony
of Donna (Trixie Anne Sampayan)

Mikel (Handiong Kapuno) reaffirms his faith in his tiyo Renato

Fiscal Teves (Rronyth Joy Sison) gives instructions to her secretary,

Charito (Christine Sagun)

Donna's mea culpa.

And the (local) band played on

I chanced upon one of the movers of Panagbenga, Panagbenga co-chair Freddie Alquiroz, just before New Year’s and he was quite straightforward about it: The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. isn’t sure if it can provide a budget for a 4th Baguio Music Festival. In the three flower festivals, we have been staging a gathering of musicians in various open spaces in the city, thanks to the support we get from BFFFI. But sponsorships aren’t easy to come by after the country was hit by Typhoon Yolanda. We understood, and we were in fact already planning on staging this year’s festival later in the year to give us more time to solicit support from the private sector.

But then, just before the festival began, we received a call from our musician-friend slash Baguio City councilor slash Baguio Music Festival chair, the Hon. Richard Carino: albeit with limited funding, and against all odds, the BFFFI was able to set aside some funds for us and that the 4th Baguio Music Festival is on.

We immediately held a meeting and a brainstorming session. And while we were very grateful to the support that the BFFFI has extended, the fact remained: we would have to do a scaled down festival this year. And despite that, we still needed to augment what was generously allotted for us to get the festival onstage.

Even before letters were sent out to potential sponsors, we received a call from InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) after announcing the event on Facebook. How can we be of help? They asked. IHG has always been supportive of our initiatives in the last few years. A number of times, they didn’t even wait for us to ask for their help, they offered it first. After hearing about our effort to gather medicines for victims of Yolanda last year by staging a benefit concert, they offered to host an encore right at the IHG grounds to gather personal-hygiene supplies for the victims. With them on board, we knew there was no stopping the festival now.

Cordillera Today came in next, offering invaluable advertising and column space to spread the word about “The Age of Aquarius,” this year’s theme that advocated the need for a major paradigm shift in Baguio. The Rural Bank of Itogon and the University of Baguio stepped in too to provide additional logistical support, and Alabanza Meat Store, a perennial blockbuster during Session Road in Bloom, offered to feed the artists on its final night.

Sonny Zandueta

The festival opened at Ililikha, the art space along Assumption Road on February 24, special thanks to Kidlat Tahimik, Kidlat De Guia, Kawayan and Kabunyan for lending their space to us. Sonny Zandueta, a prodigal son of Baguio, launched the three-day festival with a performance of his original works.

The following day, The Age of Aquarius moved to the Igorot Garden where, after waiting for an hour for heaven’s blessing of a gentle rain to stop, guest band, Fuseboxx, a prog rock group, opened the evening’s be-in. They were followed by a collaborative performance of some of the city’s foremost musicians.

Abby Clutario of Fuseboxx jams with Coun. Richard Carino

"In perfect harmony" - The Open Space children performed the song,
"I'd like to teach the world to sing"

Atty. Jose "Bubut" Olarte, Jr.

Eunice Caburao, Gemma Gonzalez and Bakulaw

On the third day, we rose again, this time at the Main Stage of Session Road in Bloom for an encore featuring highlights from the previous night’s performance. We were sandwiched between two other musical acts that afternoon: Musar's performance featuring their students and teachers and crowd favorite The Edralins. On the poster, we were simply billed as "local bands." There was no better way to put it, we were indeed a local band - a band of kindred spirits who believed this year's festival's vision, and whose faith in the local artist remain steadfast.

Eric Tubon of Fuseboxx

Lawyer, rocker, environmentalist Chris Donaal

Bong Dailo

And for the fourth straight year, thanks to Councilor Richard Carino’s unwavering faith in local musicians, BFFFI’s generosity and the support of our friends in the community: IHG, Cordillera Today, The Rural Bank of Itogon, The University of Baguio and Alabanza Meat Store, we were able to provide the community with three nights of music that hoped to inspire them into taking a more active role in preserving, protecting and enhancing the natural beauty of Baguio, particularly its remaining parks and open spaces.

Another misdirected initiative from City Hall (Baguio)

When Daniel Burnham saw the wide expanse, the biggest piece of level land in the proposed site for the planned hill station, he reserved this for a public park specifically for the benefit of people of moderate means, according to the book, City of Pines: The Origins of Baguio as an American Hill Station. After all, at the time, there was already the planned Baguio Country Club for the elite, Camp John Hay for the armed forces servicemen, the Hotel Pines for the well-to-do tourists, etc. The park would be a haven for nature – the watering hole would be expanded into a man-made lake surrounded by trees and colourful blooms and adjacent to it would be a wide open space where people can stroll around, have picnics, play. Re-create.

From the time the city was chartered to today, among the most treasured memories of those who grew up in Baguio, along with those who simply visited this mountain resort, have been times spent out in the open in what has become the centerpiece of the City of Pines: Burnham Park. And the recurring mayor of the City of Pines has this proposal: to address the worsening traffic situation in the central business district, he is envisioning a parking facility to be built underground at the Melvin Jones Football Grounds, according to a news report.

Daniel Burnham must be turning in his grave – what he envisioned as an amusement center for the less-privileged is now being threatened by a proposed project that would benefit the more affluent. Those who have less in life will now have even less in public infrastructure because the mayor wants to serve the interest of those who have more in life. This comes on the heels of his proposal to put up gates around the park for reasons only he believes make sense.

The concept of ecological balance seems to be beyond our good leader’s grasp. Creating that much disturbance to nature will have a huge, drastic effect on the area’s ecosystem. And if he gets his way and the parking facility is put in place, I wonder if he realizes what the effect would be of having greatly increased vehicular traffic in the area – how much worse would the air quality be in a place that’s supposed to provide people a respite from hustle and bustle of rapid urbanization?

The place has also been experiencing flooding in recent years, pouring that much concrete on that much earth space would also significantly reduce its water absorption capability. The grounds is situated in a valley that acts like a catch basin for water run-off coming from higher areas, where would all that water go if the place is cemented? Nowhere, it will stay there, and for much longer with less earth to absorb it.

They seem to be hell-bent on destroying everything that is beautiful about Baguio. Sign the online petition to oppose this proposal here.