IN JUST A FEW DAYS, we will be marking yet another milestone year in the life of Baguio. Almost always, we’d mark the day in remembrance of where we came from, basking in more than a century of growth and development as a Philippine city built nearest the Philippine skies.
Remembering should make us look back to where and everything began, actually not in 1909 when the city charter was penned, but may years back to 1892, when Dean Worcester learned of “a place of pines and oaks blessed with a perpetually temperate climate.”
It took two decades more before our American founders began to build from Worcester’s revelations. As history would show, making discovery useful was something else. Working for that dream, that vision of creating something out of “a place of pines and oaks” was something else. Working for that dream meant having to hurdle big, seemingly insurmountable challenges, of braving the odds.
Remembering brings to life how Daniel Burnham, the American architect who knew what a model city should be, labored it out to plan, design, and execute Baguio’s physical development, rooted on what Worcester revealed, anchored on the place of pines and oaks blessed with a perpetually temperate climate.
Burnham gave us a glimpse into what Baguio ought to be, a place cradled in its past, molded into its present, and glistening in its future. Always, the environment top-ranked Baguio’s development and growth.
One thing stands out in re-telling the narrative of Baguio: in building it in fitting form to Burnham’s vision, it is meant that deviations must be in accord to that place discovered by Worcester. The challenge for future builders and dreams is as clear as day: to a man, perseverance must persist, with will unbowed, with goal unblurred, with purpose unbroken.
September First this year should be remembered for all that Baguio represents, not the bits and pieces of what we lack and feel sorry about, but the grand vision that made it all happen. Gladdened, greened and getting back its shared future of environmental resourcefulness for all.