Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Only good citizenship can save Baguio from decay

Inquirer Northern Luzon
Only good citizenship can save Baguio from decay

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:01:00 06/18/2008



BAGUIO CITY – Practically the whole of Baguio City used to be his playground. He and other teenage children would climb the thickly forested Mount Sto. Tomas, roam the pine and mossy forests of what is now Quezon Hill, and trek to the hot springs of Asin in nearby Tuba town.

They wouldn’t even bother to bring packed lunch with them because they could dig for singkamas ti bakes (wild turnips), pick berries and other wild fruits, and drink from springs or pitcher plants.

“Ten or so singkamas ti bakes (literally, monkey’s turnips) for each of us were enough for our lunch to keep us full for the rest of the day in the great outdoors,” recalls 69-year-old Carlito Cenzon.

Now the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Baguio, Cenzon is among true-blue “Baguio boys,” who are not only nostalgic about the place that made their childhood summers whole and happy in the 1950s.

He is among a few pioneers who, after having noted how Baguio has been deteriorating over the years, now seek to rescue it from further decay. How?

Getting involved

“By being citizens,” Cenzon says. “This means participating, getting involved, not being indifferent, chipping in your talents for the good of the community, paying taxes, following rules and regulations. And if you’re in the government, making your office a public trust.”

He laments the lack of good citizenship, which, he says, can be seen in a pervasive “extractive mentality” in which many come to extract whatever they get out of Baguio, even if this means illegally building a house in a vital watershed, for example.

Cenzon agrees such mentality of extraction may have originated from an extractive industry from which Baguio was born – mining.

Baguio as an urban center emerged as a result of the boom in mining in the neighboring gold-rich towns of Benguet, an industry that American colonial soldiers-turned-gold-prospectors began on a massive scale in the early 1900s.

With its mountain climate and the promise of economic opportunities, more and more migrants have poured into Baguio in recent years. Many came and squatted on public lands, taking advantage of a city government with no updated and strict land use and zoning policies.

Cenzon cites, among other things, what is now known as Quirino Hill. During his childhood, the place used to be covered with a pine forest and called Carabao Mountain. With a slope of above 18 degrees, the hill is now one of the densely populated areas.

The bishop and the environment advocacy group, Baguio Regreening Movement, in which he is one of the officers, have since been on a mission to save the watersheds.

They have not only led concerned citizens and students in planting trees but also recommended the demolition of squatters’ houses in Busol, a vital watershed.

Despite the maze of legal bureaucratic procedures required before demolishing shanties, “our battle to save whatever is left of our watersheds continues,” he says. “The battle is ongoing even if squatters have remained despite hundreds of court orders issued against them.

According to Cenzon, many people – big and small – have been “raping Baguio for a long time,” with each one trying to extract what he can get from the city at all costs.

One of the outfits to which concerned citizens have vented their ire on is a subsidiary of a shopping mall chain. For months, officials and residents were kept in the dark regarding company plans to build another structure in a hectare of pine woodlot near the Baguio Convention Center.

Recently, an official of the firm told the city council about its plan to build condominium buildings on that lot. Because of public pressure from concerned citizens like Cenzon, most members of the council have opposed it.

Campaign

“I would lead a campaign to boycott this mall if this structure is built despite concerned citizens’ protest,” says Cenzon.

He says an official of the shopping mall had told him the company would look for an alternative site.

But apart from big-time threats, even ordinary residents are helping ruin Baguio, says the bishop. He cites those who use sidewalks for auto repair and vulcanizing shops, sari-sari (variety) stores and other business stalls, and ambulant vendors.

As one of those who conceptualized the recent “Walk Baguio Walk” drive, in which government employees and residents are encouraged to walk rather than drive to work, Cenzon admits that walking would be quite difficult with the lack of sidewalks.

When told that Marikina City was able to clear its sidewalks and succeeded in reclaiming these for the public, Cenzon says replicating that experience requires strong political will.

Good governance, strong political will and people exercising their role as citizens could rescue Baguio from further decay, he says. “But what all these require is love,” he says. “You must love Baguio first so you can have the passion and the heart to serve the interest of the community rather than your interest.”

Responsible citizenship, he says, emanates from love of one’s community or country.


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

How Cordillera children are deprived of education


How Cordillera children are deprived of education


By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: June 11, 2008


KIBUNGAN, Benguet – At the second crow of the rooster at daybreak, children of the sub-village of Liwen in Benguet’s upland town of Kibungan have to wake up, eat an early breakfast, and brace for an hour-long uphill climb to the nearest school at the poblacion (town center).

After classes are dismissed in the afternoon, they have to rush home before it gets dark.

Their ordeal – come rain, typhoon or cold season – is a fact of life not only in this Kankanaey town but elsewhere in the Cordillera. This is why Jimmy Jose, 27, a native of Sinacbat village in neighboring Bakun town, and many of his former elementary classmates had to reach at least 8 years old so they can enter Grade 1.

“We had to grow older and be strong enough to be able to walk or (literally) climb our way to school,” recalls Jose, a forestry graduate, who worked his way through high school and college. “This remains the reality in our community.”

“Worse, those who were too weak and those not so determined to go to school eventually would drop out and forget school altogether,” he says.

Kibungan is a fifth-class municipality (annual income: P7 million-P13 million).

The Department of Education aims to encourage more children, particularly 6-year-olds, to enroll in Grade 1. It has campaigned to inform parents to enroll their children after noting a low turnout of 6-year-old enrollees for Grade 1 last school year.

Only more than a third or a million of the three million 6-year-old children nationwide enrolled in Grade 1 last year, says Benito Tumamao, DepEd Cordillera director. This national trend was more or less the same in the Cordillera, he says.

“The difficult access of children to the nearest school where they have to walk six to seven kilometers remains a main factor [for the low turnout of Grade 1 enrollees] in our region,” says Tumamao.

Ninety-five percent of the Cordillera terrain is mountainous. The only flat lands are in Tabuk City, Kalinga; Bangued, Abra; and the valley town of La Trinidad, Benguet’s capital.

“So I understand how these 6-year-olds with frail bodies can hardly withstand the rigors of hiking kilometers just to reach the nearest school,” says Tumamao.

The DepEd has projected over 6,000 6-year-olds in Grade 1 in the region this year or almost 3 percent of the 216,865 projected total enrollees for the elementary level.

Education for all

It seeks to help achieve in the country the United Nations goal to provide education for all by 2015. But Tumamao admits this goal will continue to elude the country unless policy reforms are made.

An area that needs reforms is in building schools in remote communities.

Since the government wants to “economize” on what it allots for teaching positions, the DepEd cannot put up schools in communities with fewer than 30 students. But the reality is that many remote communities in the Cordillera have fewer than 30 6-year-olds at a given school year. These children are thus forced to enroll in schools at the town or village centers, if they are fit enough.

Tumamao is proposing a policy to establish schools even in communities with low enrollment. A teacher can be assigned to a community where even 15 children can use a barangay (village) hall as classroom, he says.

Children in remote communities can also go to school at the right age if they are provided boarding schools, he says. Boarding schools would allow them to go home only on weekends to get supplies for the week.

Tumamao says Cordillera lawmakers may consider these policy reforms to help them craft education-related laws. “We, educators, would be happy if our legislators would support these suggested policy reforms,” he says.

For secondary education, the Cordillera recorded almost 13-percent dropout rate last school year, one of the highest in the country. Tumamao cites economic difficulties, health problems and the distance of schools among the major reasons.

If the trend continues, almost 12,000 of the projected 89,640 high school enrollees this year would drop out.

Fast Facts

The Cordillera still lacks teachers in both public elementary and high schools. This school year, it needs 95 elementary school teachers and 37 high school teachers, according to the Department of Education.

In Ifugao, 25 elementary school teachers are needed; Kalinga, 22; Benguet, 18; Mt. Province, 11; Apayao, 11; Baguio City, six; and Abra, two.

Benguet needs 14 secondary school teachers while Apayao needs 11; Kalinga, five; and Mt. Province, four. Abra and Baguio City have no projected need for new teachers until 2011.

Many schools still lack classrooms and armchairs or desks. For grade school, Kalinga needs 99 classrooms; Benguet, 64; Abra, 36; Baguio, 23; Mt. Province, 19; Ifugao, 18; and Apayao, 14.
For high school, Kalinga needs 73 classrooms; Mt. Province, 50; Baguio, 48; Benguet, 40; Apayao, 36; and Abra, 27.

Elementary schools in Benguet need 5,836 armchairs or desks. Kalinga needs 4,468 desks; Apayao, 1,990; Baguio, 1,396; Mt. Province, 1,360; Ifugao, 729; and Abra, 622.