From under this hat: Sagada, Baguio and 35 years ago

By KATHLEEN T. OKUBO
www.nordis.net

The first time I visited Sagada was a time when Baguio was still more like Sagada. Everyone knew each other and if somebody’s son or daughter was seen walking in some district far from home or school the news gets to the parents that same day. It was also that time that newspapers travelled from Baguio to Sagada by the ‘first trip’ of the then Dangwa bus, so much so, that if one has travelled with the newspapers to Sagada, when you get to the place or house you are to stay, it is like dejavu, the people there would either be telling you what’s on the news or telling you what they thought of people or events in the newspapers you travelled with.

The American colonials arrived and settled in Baguio and Sagada around the same time. Baguio had the advantage of a central plan where besides the housing areas, city hall, the market, the school zones, etc. were drawn on it along with the sewer and garbage disposal designs but then only for a population of 25,000. Since then and until now that the city population is believed to be 300,000 that central plan is still the only plan that has worked but is now so outgrown. Like undersized and tattered clothes on a working man’s back that is still struggling to hold together a city that is bursting at its seams.

Because there was no responsible foresight since, there has never been a comprehensive improvement on the old City’s central plan. Even the confusing BLIST or medium term development plan is said to be being implemented at the whims and to the mood of whosoever politician finds use for it to build or gain some lime light. So, today, Baguio has only a garbage disposal plan on paper that has been taken-out and thrown back in to the shelf many times for more that a decade. She also had an improved sewerage plan 35 years ago that was for a population of 100000 (from the 25000) that remained half done as the population grew and grew. Now Baguio has a perennial garbage problem and it has also turned La Trinidad, by way of the Balili River tributaries, into its private toilet bowl.

Besides the big mining companies reviving their exploration plans to dig areas in Sagada and its neighbors, commerce and trade forces open doors for the population to grow especially in a once small community like Sagada. If the facilities for garbage and sewage are not attended to now, this treasured hideaway may soon grow to be as smelly as the pigsty or as dirty as Baguio today. I have also noticed that a break from tradition has been made, properties are now out for sale for housing. This can be a signal for strangers to come and add members to the once closed community of strong traditions and binding cultural ties.

Development for the community is usually welcome but sometimes the rush for development if not well thought of and planned for can be a curse to or for the next generations. When I first visited Sagada, I thought it was the best place on earth. I still did think so some ten years after that, and the road was still of gravel and rough but it was clean and the drainage canals did work. Today, looking at all the stores, the hotels the number of busses per day, makes me feel Sagada is growing to be another Baguio.

I would have wanted to say, “oh good” but instead I feel deep sadness. I do not think I like Sagada to grow so big that its garbage or sewer cannot be contained, its water rationed, its natural wealth ravaged by multi-national strangers and carpetbaggers, and its people angry. I will miss all those friendly smiles, native pride for their way of life, the strong pine scent even if sometimes interrupted by a whiff of fresh cow dung along the one main street of Sagada. Please, take care of the town. I hope the community remains strong to resist the mines and the betraying glitter of gold and continue to build it as their own town as the home they want it to be.# nordis.net