Baguio’s nightmare

Baguio City, Benguet – Not much has changed in the City of Pines since I last visited a year ago.

Except for the fact that Grab already operates here which makes it easier to move from one place to another, that Café by the Ruins in Shuntug (which caught fire and was closed in 2017) has reopened and that their branch in Upper Session Road moved to Gibraltar late last year, that SM Baguio has been renovated, Baguio remains basically the same.

It is a sad reminder of what can become if sustainable is not made a priority by government.

Attaining sustainability, however, is better said than done. Governments worldwide have found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to address the negative environmental consequences of economic growth and globalization, and to find possible solutions to the problems caused by industrialization and population growth.

Filipinos are not new to this. Boracay Island gets as many as two million tourists and tens of billions of pesos in tourism receipts every year. It is home to thousands of hotels, resorts, and other business establishments, a far cry from the few that could be found 30 years ago, but at what cost? Boracay’s waters were teeming with waste, traffic was horrendous, pollution was at its peak. Government had to close the island for six months and had to order hundreds of business establishments closed for failure to connect their wastewater to the sewage system.

Now that the waters of Boracay are once again clean and business establishments are farther from the shoreline, the challenge to maintain this better state of things has presented itself. According to reports, Boracay residents are complaining about the spike in the number of Chinese businesses in the island, many of which have been closed due to violation of environmental laws. Chinese tourists, who are now the top visitors in Boracay, have also been the top violators of local ordinances, according to the Boracay Tourism Regulatory Enforcement Unit.

But while it was possible to close Boracay completely for six months to tourists and businesses, the same is not possible for Baguio, the city being a gateway to other parts of the Cordillera, according to Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong.

The mayor said that the rehabilitation of the city would not be as drastic as that of Boracay and would instead be focused on massive regreening and improvement of the city’s sewerage system. Magalong revealed that the city’s rivers are polluted and that only 12 percent of Baguio’s houses are connected to the city’s sewerage treatment plant which has already exceeded its carrying capacity and has leaks.

Magalong revealed that Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano have agreed to bring to the attention of President Duterte the issuance of an order mandating the partial rehabilitation of Baguio and a one-year moratorium on the construction of buildings and cutting of trees in exchange for funds to rehabilitate the existing sewerage system.

Balili River which flows to La Trinidad, Benguet has a reported fecal coliform bacteria level of 1.6 billion MPN per 100 milliliter, while that of Bued River that flows to Rosario, La Union has reached 465 million MPN, both beyond acceptable standards.

As of presstime (Thursday), the heads of DENR, DILG and the tourism department are scheduled to visit the city to assess the situation in preparation for the city’s rehabilitation. According to the mayor, concerned offices will be presenting their priority projects.

Plans of the city include putting up parking buildings using green architecture, rehabilitating the Baguio City Market in phases within two to three years at a cost of at least P5 billion, closing Mines View Park as part of an P18-million rehabilitation project, and closing Burnham Park and redeveloping it. Baguio City is also trying to secure a P20-billion soft loan and grant from the Asian Development Bank for the improvement of the city’s wastewater management and the provision of adequate potable water for the increasing population.

The parking situation in Baguio has become so bad that once I had to secure a parking slot in the hotel, the car was parked there until it was time to go back to Manila. And this was during non-peak days. Imagine the parking and traffic nightmare during the Panagbenga festival, the Christmas holidays, Holy Week, and other long weekends. I dare not go to Baguio during those occasions. Not only is it difficult to hail a cab. Restaurants are full, everything is expensive, services are bad. Baguio residents dread these days because they can’t even leave the house and return unscathed, in a manner of speaking.

As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, tourists are making it worse. According to Baguio City’s General Services Office, from the normal 170 tons of garbage collected in the city on normal days, this increased to over 200 tons daily from Dec. 21 up to the 30th. The littering problem also worsened especially in the central business district. Mayor Magalong lashed out at the lack of discipline and mindfulness in the disposal of trash, warning that he would recommend to the city council the passage of ordinances that would impose congestion and environmental fees on tourists.

We haven’t even talked about the air pollution problem. Local newspapers have reported that around 750,000 private and public utility vehicles came in and out of Baguio City from Dec. 20, 2019 to Jan. 2, 2020. No wonder that the air quality here remains bad. As early as 2014, the World Health Organization had reported that Baguio had topped the list of Philippine cities with the most polluted air. Manila and Cebu came in second and third. Those living in Baguio have a higher risk of getting cancer, stroke, or heart disease, WHO said.

The unabated cutting of trees due to the construction of more and more buildings in the city is not helping.

While restoring the good old days of Baguio City by putting up parking buildings and renovating tourist spots like Burnham Park, Mines View Park, and even the Baguio Public Market is good aesthetically and could be achieved in the short-term, implementing solutions to problems like air and water pollution, congestion, lack of urban planning that has resulted in buildings being constructed even in areas considered environmentally critical in order to attain sustainability should also be prioritized and done now.

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