Baguio's haunted heritage

By Jesus Miguel G. Agreda

ASIDE from the cool weather and lush pine trees that made Baguio famous, the city has also been synonymous to the haunted and the paranormal.

Watching episodes of TV 5's Philippines Scariest Challenge for the past two weeks featuring two famous haunted sites in the city made me realize that indeed, albeit feared by many, these haunted heritage sites over the past 99 years stand as silent witnesses to the growth of the once small hill station into a highly urbanized city.

To name just a few of these so-called haunted places that created Goosebumps, sent jitters and wrought fear among city residents and tourists alike, who experienced seeing shades of spirits and entities in the vicinity of these places, were The Diplomat Hotel in Dominican Hill, White Hall at Teacher's Camp, Casa Vallejo at Upper Session Road and the White Laperal House along Leonard Wood Road.

However, aside from all the fears of entities and spirits that inhabit these places is the apparent evidence that these paranormal sites have been a living testament to the rich heritage of the city.

In an online petition to declare Baguio as a Special Heritage Zone, Dion Fernandez whom our group Ubbog had met before in our monthly workshop at the University of the Cordilleras last year, believed that the city is the nerve center of four rich and diverse cultures: the Filipino culture in general, the highland Cordilleran culture, the lowland Ilocano culture, and the heritage culture brought about by the Americans during the early 20th Century.

The petition claimed that in the past two decades, the city has experienced a substantial degradation of its unique culture, environment and art. It also claimed that the approval of certain politicians with no respect for the aesthetics and the environment of Baguio by cutting numerous pine trees to put up concrete structures such as malls, overpasses and flyovers only worsened Baguio City's lamentable decay as a City of Pines.

Together with more than a thousand signatories of the petition, I believe this over-development and resulting pollution have to stop. By declaring the city as a Special Heritage Zone, I believe that this over-development of the city will be reduced if not eradicated. And that Baguio as a center of culture, the arts and environmental awareness, will be comparable to other major cities like Venice, Rome and Paris.

I join the call of the signatories of the petition for the government to reconstruct, restore and preserve these allegedly haunted sites if not for their spooky past but for its valuable role as a symbol of the rich culture and history of the city.

The recent renovation of the Teacher's Camp back to its full glory for example is a good sign of the government's thrust for heritage conservation. The Laperal house owned by tycoon Lucio Tan has been host to Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club's recent anniversary party.

Soon, other haunted sites like Casa Vallejo and Diplomat Hotel will be restored back to its once beautiful state and will play an important part as a tourist destination of the city and not as a place where fear of its unseen inhabitants linger.

As of this writing, the Baguio Heritage Petition online has more than 1903 electronic signatures from individuals who have loved Baguio City dearly.

In a few days, what a coincidence it will be if the signatories will reach 1909, the same year that Baguio was declared as a chartered city. Let us all help push for this petition's dreams to bear fruit and become a reality.

Ubbog and Cordillera Writing

By JM Agreda

The Cordillera region probably has one of the richest kinds of languages in the country.But soon, with the proliferation of foreign languages as well as languages from the lowlands, acclaimed writers like National Artists for Literature Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera and Dr. Virgilio Almario in last summer's Forum on New Trends in Philippine Literature at UP Baguio predicted that indigenous languages and literatures of the region may face the possibility of disappearance as many of its inhabitants prefer to speak and write in the more popular and widely spoken languages.


During the forum, Lumbera and Almario together with UP Institute for Creative Writing Director Vim Nadera called for a renewed interest of writing from the regions not only in common mediums like English and Filipino but also in the local languages of the Cordillera like Iluko, Ibaloi, Kankanaey, Kalanguya, Ifugao and Kalinga.

As one of the fellows in last year's UP Baguio-National Commission for Culture and the Arts Cordillera Creative Writing Workshop, I was alarmed with their forecast as it may soon spell out the end of writing in the local languages.

In an effort to continue the main aim of last year's workshop of preserving Cordillera literature, the Ubbog: Cordillera Young Writers was formed last April 2007.

In existence for a year now, Ubbog, which means spring in Iluko, aims to involve the youth as forerunners in the cause of continuing to write short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction and other literary genres in the local languages and in Filipino and English mediums that will help showcase the unique culture of the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera.

As a founding member of the group, I believe ideas from young bloods would be of great help in quenching the thirst for more literature coming from the region. This endeavor will also help preserve practices and traditions through written and published literature that are uniquely Cordilleran.

Together with 13 young writers who were my fellow delegates in the workshop coming from UP Baguio, University of the Cordilleras and Benguet State University, we conducted monthly Creative Writing workshops and occasionally performed vernacular poetry in open mike sessions and events in the city.

Ubbog members include young professionals and students who are engaged in a plethora of fields like Education, Creative writing, Journalism, Information Technology, Law and yes, even in the field of Nursing.

Expect the columns in the following weeks to tackle different views of the youth covering a myriad of topics such as languages, information technology, pop culture and other issues that concerns the youth.

In behalf of Ubbog, I take the opportunity to thank Sun.Star Baguio for their support of our goals. As the first writer tasked on writing the first column of the group, I consider this pioneering effort as just the starting point of an exciting journey of young minds to share and voice out their views on issues that matter to us.

Just a side note, UP Baguio and NCCA are calling for entries written in Ibaloi, Kankanaey, Bontoc, Ifugao, and Kalinga to the Timpalak Panitik sa mga Wikang Kordilyera. Prizes will be given away for winners in Poetry and Short Story categories. For more inquiries contact Junley Lazaga at UP Baguio College of Arts and Communication (074) 444 83 93 or e-mail him at junleylazaga@yahoo.com.ph. Forms are also available at the UP Baguio website.