By Tedler D. Depaynos, MD
It was one early evening many, many years ago when my father and I were seated on the steps of our old house watching the flickering lights at distant Quirino Hill. He was describing then the dark and houseless Hill with lots of pine trees. I was familiar with that area because I spent all my elementary days at the foot of that Hill. From time to time, we climbed that once forested Hill to gather sticks to support our planted beans in our school garden. Squatter-like structures mushroomed later which eventually became permanent. Some are many stories high and some are mansion-like. He was also recalling a wide area with tall pine trees somewhere on top of Aurora Hill where they always camped when they came from Kabayan. During those earlier times, there were no roads and they had to hike all the way from Kabayan to Baguio to trade and buy their supplies. He even mentioned that they even hiked down to La Union to buy the precious salt they profusely added to the meat that they preserved by hanging them above their cooking fire place. Salt was then like gold and “bago-ong” was never in their dictionary. Every time that they camped, they left evidence that it was theirs. In one of their trading adventures, however, they found themselves more fatigued when they discovered with deep frustration that their camp site was suddenly occupied by other settlers with more permanent structures. Their protestations were of no effect because they were just travelers. Jokingly, I teased him that we could have inherited a wide prime real estate and could have built a nice residential mansion after selling a part of it. “Sayang”!
On another occasion, my father mentioned a bent old man they called “Batakagan” who used to own the lake and the wide surrounding areas one surely passed when hiking to Mt. Pulag. He lived in a shack beside the lake and it was common knowledge among the original nearby residents that he was the recognized owner. They might have been far from each other but they were familiar with each other because they were few and they always gathered together whenever there were significant events like a wedding, a canao or mourning. My father befriended the old man because they met on many occasions and besides that is where the ancestors of my mother came from. He was interested in acquiring a part of the old man’s land but upon verification at the municipal assessor’s office, it was only a small area of land that was declared. He surmised that due to lack of funds to pay the required taxes, only a limited area was declared. The “kaingin” the old man cultivated was barely enough to fulfill his needs! Because of this my father did not pursue his intention.
I don’t know what happened when the old man passed away. He lived alone and had no known family. Probably, most of his known properties were eventually declared public land and applied for by others. I learned recently that the lake no longer exists and is replaced by a vegetable farm. “Sayang”! We could have controlled the entrance to Mt. Pulag.
I could also recall my late father emphasizing that there were few inhabitants during those earlier times so that it was easy for some “ancestors” to declare hectares of land as their own. They were the educated ones and had the means so they were the ones who made the declaration. According to my father, those with horses were with the means for a “horse” was then equivalent to a Volkswagon Beetle. The few inhabitants may have complained but because they were “no read nor write” and were financially in need it was easy for the “ancestors” to buy their silence with money they never saw before. To their descendants, I would say how lucky they are! They were born hacienderos. I kidded my father why he did not also declare the neighboring hills where he was farming. “Sayang”!
Incidentally, I was in contact decades ago with some descendants of families not necessarily from Baguio or Benguet who claimed that their parents or grandparents had been residing at the periphery of now Camp John Hay even before World War II. Meaning even before the American Base was established they claimed to be already there. Because of lack of education or lack of means perhaps, they never applied for the land. After the war when the Base was established, the descendants found themselves illegal settlers. Some were even surprised and of course dejected that part of their residential house was within the declared Base area. According to some of them, it was only in the 70s when they started applying for the lands adjacent to the Base boundary which were still considered public land. To their joy, some were awarded which they always thought to really belong to them. I do not know the others. Hope they were also joyous and got what they wanted. “Sana” no “sayang” for them.
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