By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Baguio City has always been the second home of many kakailians (read: I-Montanosa). It is the nearest center for higher education, especially before Mountain Province State Polytechnic College came to be. The I-Montanosas value education so much that parents would sacrifice just to give their children college education. Baguio City is also home to many lowlanders. The first Filipino professionals in the city must have come from the lowlands as we were not yet in school then. In my memory, Baguio was one slow-paced, small place where we would walk from P. Burgos to the market or Burnham Park. I remember that in the 1960s, there was hardly a vehicle plying that route so we would occupy the whole road as we walked (my Mom and Dad and 4 or 5 of us siblings). In the 1970s we would walk from UP to Session Road down to Magsaysay Avenue. Foggy afternoons would find us, collegians, having pancit in Tea House. That is, if we had the money, and that was not often.
Now, this City of Pines has blossomed. In its blossoming, it has cut away a lot of pine trees, it has cemented a lot of its small area, and roads are all over the place but hardly any sidewalk for people. However, as Mayor Domogan often says, it is still the highest city in the country. And thus it has the coolest climate. In a tropical country like the Philippines, Baguio’s climate is a welcome respite to many people. A lot more people have settled here, more than it can handle. Many OFWs from the Cordillera Administrative Region have built houses here, aside from building in their own “ili”. A lot of tourists come here and because of its limited carrying capacity, tourists spill over to Sagada.
Baguio continues to blossom. Yearly, it blooms with its month-long flower festival in February, Panagbenga ( meaning “season of blooming”). It spills over, though, in March and as I write this, Session Road is “in bloom”. I like this “Session in Bloom” best because I can walk on Session Road mismo and linger and loiter there. (By the way, even Burnham Park has commercial stalls lined up near the Rose Garden.) It’s horrible to be out in the streets during the float parade and street dancing because of so many people.
Session Road is, to me, Baguio City. It has all kinds of goods and services, even vegetables and fruits, before the crackdown on sidewalk vendors. There used to be two bookstores- CID and Jet- but now almost all its businesses are food business. How sad that books are relegated to the inner shelves. Now with Panagbenga, all kinds of goods are peddled in Session in Bloom. This year, I noticed that there are more food and clothes than flowers. There was a time when flowers occupied a lot of space and it was a refreshing sight. While in Session, I try to peek into as many stalls. And I and my children would take note of what is new each year. We look out for crafts and these give us ideas. Its heartwarming to see enterpreneurs who take effort to produce beautiful pieces of art for display during Panagbenga. It is interesting to note that other regions in the country bring their goods here to Baguio. I would like to see, however, more of Cordillera arts and crafts on display here.
I would also like to see healthier food displays. Almost every food stall is shawarma, burger or sweets and there was not one stall where I could get fresh vegetable juice. It was good I saw this stall selling local teas processed in Nueva Ecija, one of which was an intriguing combination of rice coffe, guyabano and mangosteen, and they were selling by the cup. There was another stall giving free taste of cooked root crops but were coated with sugar. I bet if somebody displayed plain boiled camote and gabi and linupak, these would sell briskly.
I wish also that Session Road would stay closed to vehicular traffic. If people walked, they would be more inclined to look into the stores by the road. It is also cozy to have coffee by the road, assured that there are no fumes in front of your nostrils, and watch people and the world go by. That way, stores make more money and we, the public, especially the commuting public, would feel happiest.**
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“And why worry about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, even King Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.” Matthew 6: 28-29
