Caring Hearts

Caring Hearts

By Maurice Malanes

Pioneers of Baguio City would always tell about how during the good old days they didn’t have to lock their doors when they would leave their houses. The same was true with their vehicles when they parked them anywhere downtown.

So during those days, residents of this northern Philippine city, which American colonialists designed in 1909, didn’t have to install iron grills for their windows and double and triple locks for their doors. Car alarms were unheard of then.

Not anymore. Your house may have iron grills and steel gates but robbers always find ways to break in and take anything they can get.

While walking along Session Road or at the public market, you have to always be on guard against the quick and long hands of pickpockets who prey on your cell phones and wallets. And when they hold you up with a knife or gun poked into your neck, you have to give your beloved mobile phone or wallet because these people, who made thievery their industry, are ready to kill. After the horrifying experience of being held up, you would still thank the heavens that at least your life was spared.

So one indicator of Baguio’s “progress” over the years is that now, unlike before, houses are installed with window grills, steel gates, and burglar alarms for those who can afford. This is good for the steel industry because of the high demand for iron bars. But this is of course bad for the environment because, as in mining gold or copper, mountains are scraped and rivers and springs are contaminated in the process of mining iron ores.

Old-timers also relate that at the heart of the Baguio public market was an island planted to various ornamental plants with varied flowers. They say the market then was so clean and orderly that it was among the city’s tourists’ attractions. They now feel sorry over how the market has deteriorated over the years. They note that meat is now sold in the midst of a dry goods section. The market, they say, is now literally messed up.

As Baguio commemorates its centennial founding anniversary on 1 September 2009, an appointed centennial commission has proposed to publish a book about the city we all love. The book seeks to look at how Baguio fared after a century since its founding on 1 September 1909. But how does it differ from other Baguio history books already written?

The book can be guided by the Baguio centennial commemoration theme, which revolves around the “culture of caring,” says Dr. Ronald Paraan of the centennial commission. From the early days, caring for Baguio was a way of life. Be it in the field of politics and governance, culture, business, health and sanitation, education, and environment, the centennial book thus seeks to trace and examine how the “culture of caring” evolved and flourished and how it deteriorated and how it can be revived.

American planner Daniel Burnham may not have foreseen that the city he originally designed for 25,000 would grow into 250,000 or 300,000. But somewhere along the history of the city’s leadership, some people at City Hall were said to have deliberately encouraged squatters to get considerable slices of the city’s lands. This certainly has helped swell the city’s population, which in turn has benefited politicians during elections.

So somewhere along the line the culture of caring has been lost in the bad policies forged at or good policies un-implemented by City Hall or in the inability or inadequacy of political leaders to effectively govern and manage a city, which demands love and care plus management and planning skills. The culture of caring gradually disappeared as vested interests prevailed over concern for the city’s common good.

Time was when the original Ibaloi settlers of what was then Kafagway had such a strong sense of community so much so that they would commonly partake of the meat of cattle a family slaughtered during a religious festivity. Each one was also his brother’s keeper and so one could ask a neighbor, for example, to look after his cow or carabao (water buffalo). Houses then were not also fenced off because there was no need to. Farms maybe fenced off but the fence was intended for animals.

So in terms of culture and behavior, the proposed book on the centennial of Baguio may try to see how caring as a way of life has gradually disappeared as Baguio lost its sense of community.

From the lowest to the highest level, the culture of caring has practically vanished. Someone builds his house at the upper part of a road without being bothered whether water runoff from his roof’s gutter or waste water from his laundry and kitchen pour into the path of those below the road. We take a bath daily and deodorize our armpits but we throw our garbage in our neighbor’s yard.

Something is also amiss at the upper level. A former volunteer of a clean and green brigade, for example, complained about her group’s difficulty in sponsoring a concert whose proceeds the volunteers should use for their clean and green drive. Officials reportedly demanded exorbitant SOPs (under-the-table ‘standard operation payments’) so the volunteers behind the clean-and-green brigade ended up not raising enough funds for their cause.

The clean and green volunteer brigade and other well-meaning groups care for Baguio and they are among the sources of hope for the future of this almost a century-old city. Unfortunately, those who are supposed to help nurture the caring hearts of these volunteer groups apparently have lost any sense of caring. But let’s hope the tribe of those with strong and big hearts for others increases so we can regain the culture of caring and strong sense of community that Baguio has long been known for.