First, our police officers.
Feb. 5: PO1 Erickson Soriano of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) was seen carrying on his back to safety, tourist Ms. Jennifer Orol, 47, from Angeles, Pampanga, after she fell down the stairs at Wright Park, Baguio City.
Feb. 2: PSI Mercedes Bucalen, (BCPO), heartily conversed with vendors along Burnham Lake and exhorted them about their role in maintaining cleanliness within their immediate environment, leading to good image of the city.
Jan. 31: BCPO Station 4, supervised by PSI Julius B. Luis provided needed lecture on anti-drug abuse awareness to students of Hillside National High School (BCNHS Annex) headed by Ms. Rose Melody M. Flores, head teacher in charge and with presence of barangay officials led by chairman Jose Cawiding.
Steps of PO1 Erickson Soriano, PSI Mercedes Bucalen, PSI Julius B. Luis, like the rest of the BCPO men and women are fine examples going long ways in peaceful resolutions of communities’ day-to-day cares.
BCPO represents consciousness of a Baguio community acting upon principle and without looking for any praise – a pleasure we find superior to all that applause can yield.
Now, turn, we, to a Baguio City tiff that drew people clucking their tongues, siding with Mayor Mauricio Domogan or going against him, in like manner, those siding with city council members or going against them.
It’s about their contrasting position where to sit the Baguio Blooms Trade Fair, a major component of Panagbenga’s Flower Festival.
Use of the skating rink for the Baguio Blooms Exposition was thumbed down by city council members, citing provisions in the city’s environment code. But they offered no alternative.
On the other hand, Our Hizzoner, Domogan, stood pat on his decision on use of skating rink, emphasizing the same had been utilized previously for the same purpose, in the past.
Truth: Baguiotes and others know the skating rink had been used in the past for such purpose. So, observers ask, “Why the opposition now? They should have opposed it a long time ago.”
Now, it happened last Friday, Leo Ambag, 47, from Baguio, Dikno Gulati,49 from Baguio and Ah Kong, from a place we don’t know, were enjoying sipping barako and eating boiled camote in a cantina along Marcos National Highway when suddenly, Dikno shouted to his prens: “What say you, my friends to this brewing feud between Domogan and council members regarding site of Baguio Blooms, eh?”
“Pilyo, pirme,” dis Dikno, having this habit of yelling at anybody.
Leo stared vacantly into his cup, as if finding the answer to Dikno’s query. Finding no answer in his cup, he drank its remnants and signaled the lady cantina owner for more coffee.
Hilda, the cantina owner came over to their table, refilled Leo’s cup then addressed Dikno: “Oy Dikno, laklakayan, ibas-sit mo man ti boses mo ta nakaturog piman diyay babyk, ket bakantu mariing, wen?”
Dikno looked around the cantina, spotted no baby and said, “Ayna met diyay babym?” Hilda pointed to her husband sleeping in a corner. Looking at the old guy snoring with mouth wide open, Dikno slapped his knee with laughter. Hilda’s husband was apparently sleeping off his drunkenness.
Dikno couldn’t contain his merriment no more and said, “Isuna ti babym, isu, Hilda?” Then he burst into roiling laughter.
Seeing the sleeping apple of her eye being laughed at by their friend Dikno, Hilda went to Dikno sana tu linapigos ni Dikno.
Dikno laughed all the more, he fell off his chair.
Now, Leo enjoyed the scene, then turned to Ah and asked, “Anya kunam saludsud ni Dikno panggep diay Baguio Blooms?”
So the three friends, including Hilda – and like other Baguio folks, too – got to seriously talking about the Baguio Blooms dispute.
The friends discussion boiled to:
Sometimes, eyes of mortals are turned, not towards heaven, as this ignoramus Ah alleges, but to the horizon, so that such beings may view at once the sky that illuminates them, and the earth which supports them.
Their visual rays take in half of what they see, the plane on which they tread and their reach extend from the grain of sand which they trample under foot to the stars that shines over their heads at an immeasurable distance.
That being said, Dalman philosophized, opinion and judgement, in the case of this argument on which site to place Baguio Blooms, depend very much upon disposition and interest then.
Perhaps, the true philosophy of life, added Ah, is to be right in the first place, so far as knowledge and opportunity will enable us, and in the second place to make the best of people and things around us.
“What do you mean by that?” Leo asked Ah.
“The idea that the site of the Baguio Blossoms festival was well around us for a long time was gratifying to a well-disposed mind,” Ah said.
“On the other hand,” Leo added, “the suspicion or belief that one mortal’s mind isn’t in consonance with another mortal’s mind can be a source of uneasiness and trouble.”
“Eh? You mean the ongoing difference between the city’s executive and legislative departments as to the site of the Baguio Blossoms?” Hilda asked Leo.
Instead of Leo answering Hilda, Dikno shouted “Yes, my dear pren, Hilda!”
Then Leo mused, “Mebbeso the legislative department wants to experiment on something new for the Panagbenga’s blossoms festival, no?”
Experiment on something new? Well now, Ah remembers a time he experimented on something new.
He wanted to experiment being a taxi drayber, even for a day.
So up he went to a pren, Lubo Meslang, 63, operating a taxi cab and said, “Padle Lubo, mabalin siak agmaneho tay taxim ti maysa nga aldaw?”
Lubo examined his pren up and down, unsure whether Ah was in his right senses, but then said:
“O, padasem ag-taxi drayber ti maysa aldaw. Tapnu saan laeng nga agiduron ti papel ti ammom trabahuwen. Inayad ka agmaneho, saan kaskasero. Ken ited mo ti kusto nga supli ti pasahero. Saan ka kasla dagiti dadduma nga ibaga da awan ti sukli da. Dakes didyay nga aramid. Maawatam, Ah? Nu aramidem didyay, siyak a mismo ti mang-idarum kenyam!”
Happy experimenting being a drayber, he drove off into the night. Soon a naked, beautiful lady and holding nothing in her hands hailed Ah.
Ah stopped the taxi and the lady got in. Ah stared at the woman; the woman stared back, saying, “Hoy! Apay saan ka nakakitkita iti awan ti kawes na, ah?”
Ah answered, “Ma’am, ako wala ploblema kung ikaw wala balo. Pelo, ako tingin ng tingin, eh wala naman hawak ka o paglagyan mo pela pala pamasahe mo. Paktay ako sa me-ali ng taxi, wala ako mai-submit pela.”
Ah’s experiment ended in utter failure.
Ah also remembered a story of Joseph Manzano, general manager of Herald Express. Joseph swears by his lonesome this incident happened somewhere in Pacdal, Baguio City.
One early morning, a nun, who often went a-jogging in the very wee hours of the morning, found her exercise unexciting. So she decided experimenting on something new.
She decided to jog minus the clothes. As a result, an unidentified male with romantic inclinations hugged and kissed her passionately.
When other nuns heard about the incident, they, too, decided to jog without clothes.
Ah asked if the incident was true, Joseph, usually serious-faced, bubbled with mirth and laughter, saying, “Padle Bony, saan met dakes ag-eksperimento.”
Returning back to their serious talk, Ah said:
“Which of these courses the legislative and executive departments took to be wisest on said issue is a question for lively and wise debate among Baguio people, which is best calculated to promote individual happiness in every Baguio lover of blooms, is self-evident.”
“One can only say how diverse are the spirits of members of the city council and the city mayor, to say nothing of the intellectual elevation among them to go for the strength of purpose and pushing perseveringly after it,” Ah said.
“After all, it stands to reason that there are those supportive of our city mayor and council members. However, more residents say they are inclined to believe the mayor isn’t politicizing the matter but rather basing his decision pragmatically.”
