Skip to main content

Palengkera: Legacy? What legacy?

12 March 2009

The Baguio City Public Market is the womb of Baguio City. While we celebrate the city’s centennial year, the market quietly passes its 101st year. That is, one hundred and one years of the growth of a public space that has a unique aesthetic and a vibrant atmosphere. 101 years of extensive, thick, living networks of farmers, fisher-folk, entrepreneurs, their families, and the families of Baguio residents and visitors. 101 years of trade in the products of our region, and products from around the country and the world.

Baguio City was born out of the Baguio market. It was said in the early 1900’s that all one had to do to see how cosmopolitan and international Baguio City was, was to go to the Stone Market on market day. The market is one of the last places where Baguio’s original sense of community and belonging continues to thrive. Today the colorful market is an essential part of the Baguio experience for tourists. It continues to be a source of fresh, affordable food for Baguio youth, including the large student population that comes from out of town. The market connects us to the Cordillera mountains, to the coasts and the islands of the Philippines, and to the rest of the world. But 101 years of history, trade, and human relationships were badly damaged by fire on March 2, 2009.

We want our beloved Baguio market back. We do not want it to be replaced by yet another generic, cement, box-like structure, which every large Philippine city already has. Not all cities have what we possess in the Baguio market. We want the market to remain unique. We want it to continue to support local communities and thrive with diversity. We want it restored and rebuilt on a human-scale. Bring back the old charm. Let the vendors continue to create their beautiful displays of fruits, vegetables, and other produce. Keep the tourists coming. Keep our youth well nourished and blessed with a diversity of food choices. Make improvements where needed but do not erase the market as we have always known it – the market that is our heritage.

The Baguio City Public Market has a unique structure and a living, locally-rooted community. That is a legacy worth saving. Make this your legacy.

14 March 2009

SIGN NOW!



This is just the first step in a larger campaign to save our beloved Baguio market! Please click on the link above and if you agree with the statement please sign and join us in letting the city government and the larger public know what we want. It would be too painful to lose one of the last remnants of our Baguio heritage without even raising a peep. So there.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Good mother, good academic?

I wrote this four years ago. The struggle remains the same, so yes, publish. And god, I so want to be over this dilemma. 2016. Yesterday I was proofreading my manuscript at home when the Little Big Boss came over crying. I had to put my pen down and console her. She didn't want to leave my lap so we compromised. We put her play doh on the table and I tried to work while she played. It went smoothly -- for about five minutes! Haha! The Artist in Residence is familiar with this scene. Starting when she was eight years old, she had to come along with me to academic conferences. She'd stay in her chair reading, or drawing and writing in her notebooks. People praised her and commented on how she was remarkably well-behaved. I had no idea just how remarkable her ability to sit still and focus was, until the Little Big Boss came along. With this one, sitting together quietly for a stretch of time is a much bigger challenge. The things that kept the Artist content at conference...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lola of Maipon

It's all too easy to fall asleep under the blanket of everyday life and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. But once in a while, along comes a sparkling vision that jolts me out of my daily sleep and reminds me of the existence of convictions and worlds so different from my own. "Our beloved LOLA of Guinubatan, Maipon, Albay is the last true messenger of God. So, let us follow her holy teachings so that we will gain TRUE SALVATION without sufferings and without death." In another story I, the intrepid heroine, the adventurer seduced by mysteries, the pilgrim in search of truth, would follow them back to Guinubatan from Session Road, thirsting to see and hear their Lola for myself. However, it's all too easy -- much safer! -- to fall back asleep under the blanket of everyday life, and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. Then along comes 9 a.m., and really, it's time to down the dregs of coffee at the bott...
4 comments
Read more

Cordillera Folktales and Story-telling

It was cold and wet outside on the day of the launching of The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and other Cordillera Folktales . But inside Mt. Cloud Bookshop we were warmed by stories read and performed by the Aanak di Kabiligan community theater group. Storytelling on a stormy afternoon. Paco Paco. A Benguet story from the book, published by the Cordillera Green Network. Aanak di Kabiligan means children of the mountains. The theater group was born out of the Cordillera Green Network's eleven years of conducting workshops in which children transform their grandparents' stories into theater productions. Here they perform the title story of the Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales.
Post a Comment
Read more