Most of us have this certain nostalgic recollection of what Baguio City was in our childhood days. Clean, crisp and cool mountain air, the pine trees, sipping coffee somewhere in Session Road, hearing mass in the cathedral, all with our jackets and turtleneck sweaters; so much so that we continue, as we become older, to visit the so-called summer capital—first with our friends, then with our respective families. In those later visits, we always would say how Baguio has become different, crowded, warmer and polluted than the last time we were there. And it is not something we just tell ourselves. Because it really has changed, in a way. Baguio is now among the top 300 cities worldwide with the highest number of particulate matters in the air.
And we all feel bad, as we see our childhood Baguio leaving us, and we long for what it once was. But more so for its 350,000 plus residents who really have all the right to protect the place they call home.
So, it is so refreshing to see the new Baguio City chief, Mayor Benjie Magalong, focusing his first months on his fight against traffic congestion and pollution. A former PNP general known for sticking to his beliefs despite the odds against him in his many battles, Magalong is a man with a conviction in his new role as city mayor.
As soon as he assumed office, he took the cudgels of local taxi operators to regulate the issuances of 200 new taxi franchises, which would have affected not just the plight of their present taxi industry but would have added to the already polluted atmosphere. Encouraging people to walk more, he has opened up more walkable spaces, even closing Session Road during Sundays, making this picturesque and historic avenue exclusive to pedestrians. To further open up more avenues, he intends to put up three integrated transport terminals that would control the flow of all public transport trips —to and from Baguio—of the more than 2 million visitors annually and regulate the entry of their vehicles downtown. Ample parking spaces will also be provided in these terminals as roadside parking will be strictly banned.
To help him in the task with the constraints at hand, he has enlisted the help of national government agencies, as well as foreign organizations. These entities will be providing the proper master planning and roadmap to curb pollution and manage transport and traffic in his city. As such, Baguio City is now a model city for Low Carbon Urban Transport under the United Nations Development Programme. With the Department of Transportation, plans are being studied for the use of high capacity cable cars, a mode of transport that is highly adaptable in such a mountainous environment. He has initiated talks with local jeepney groups about the propagation and conversion of their old smoke belching jeepneys to more efficient, Euro 4 fueled modern vehicles. He has enlisted the help of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to craft a traffic management master plan, taking into account not just the intra-traffic flow in the city, but the inter-traffic flow between Baguio City and the nearby LGUs. The resulting study might then be pursued through a public-private partnership, which would see this happening at no cost to government before the end of his term. And, despite the odds, his dream of the re-opening of the Loakan airport has gained traction with the entry of San Miguel’s Ramon Ang to propose a privately operated Loakan airport.
There are many other projects in the pipeline for Magalong—his waste to energy garbage solution, the bulk water facility that needs to be rehabilitated, the public market that will soon be modernized, and so many others.
One more thing, what is happening now in Baguio under Magalong is that he has proceeded to pursue and accomplish these projects quietly and with little fanfare. It will then be sooner than later that we will all be surprised with a new, energized and refreshed Baguio greeting and embracing us like how we remember it in the good old days.
Thomas Tim Orbos was former DOTr undersecretary for roads and general manager of the MMDA. He is currently undertaking further studies at the McCourt School of Public Policy of Georgetown University. He can be reached via e-mail at thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu