True to its brave past of having resisted colonization or subjugation by the Spaniards for hundreds of years, it has weathered all problems and tribulations, to become what it is now, the most progressive among the Cordillera provinces.
Endowed with valuable mineral or precious metal deposits, and mountains conducive to vegetable farming, it continued to improve itself economically and its peace loving people also relentlessly continued to individually improve themselves over many decades ever since its creation as a province 121 years ago.
Having progressed through the decades despite the adversity due to its climate and mountainous terrain, it now has to prove itself in facing the challenges of modernity and technological advances.
Are its people ready? Or, are the Benguet people educated enough to face these. The first part of the answer involves looking at the biggest State University around– the Benguet State University. It appears to have all the courses needed for people to acquire the skills in order to compete. It also has campuses in outlying areas like Buguias and Bokod to make its offerings available to a broader segment of the populace.
And what used to be its capital, Baguio, although it has become a chartered city, is now the educational center of Northern Luzon. With its advanced and progressive universities, anybody in the province can acquire the world class education he needs to be competitive in the global village.
So the people of Benguet are poised to take on the next century with competence, pandemic and all. How lucky it was can be gleaned from its having a medical doctor by profession as governor when this dreaded Covid-19 pandemic struck. In much the same way that Germany had Angela Merkel, a scientist, as its premiere who could understand all the numbers the country’s top scientists threw at her regarding Covid-19.
Though the economic life of the Benguet people had been relatively easy due to its lucrative temperate vegetable industry and its gold deposits which even ordinary people (without huge corporate capital) could profit from through gold panning or trading, this was a boon but at the same time a bane. The early exposure of kids to the cash these could provide caused many to become unable to face or endure the rigors that acquiring higher learning entailed.
In this respect, the province lagged behind those of its neighboring Cordillera provinces. But with a governor who very well knows the value of education, the province must embark on prodding or giving incentives for its people to patronize the institutions of higher learning they could readily access. Education must be a priority if only to enable the people to tap into the opportunities the coming decades would offer.
Otherwise, its glorious history would come for naught, its people would be pushed to the peripheries, and who would be blamed? The province’s leaders and officials.** APP
