CITY OF PINES

Seated 5,000 feet above sea level the city of Baguio is one of the most visited of the seven provinces of the Cordillera Central mountain range in northern Luzon, Philippines. The other provinces are Benguet, Abra, Kalinga, Apayao, Mountain Province and Ifugao. Baguio city covers a 57.5 square kilometers of a hilly landscape. Its name was derived from the word bagiw (moss) in Ibaloi, the indigenous language of the region.  Due to its elevation, the temperature in the city is 8 degrees Celsius lower than the average temperature of the lowlands conducive to the growth of moss on trees and plants.

Nicknamed “the city of pines”, Baguio and most of the upper Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao and Mountain provinces are covered with the Philippine pine (Pinus insularis also known as Benguet pine). The same pine specie found in parts of India, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China.

After banishing the Spanish conquistadores from the mountain, the Americans developed  Baguio City in the early 1900’s at an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway (wide open space or valley) which was used for grazing cows and carabaos (water buffalos). This site was chosen among the other existing rancherias (small settlements) in Chuyo, Tongdo, Loacan and La Trinidad, named after the wife of the Spanish Comandante Galvey.   

American architect Daniel Burnham was commissioned to design the city plans. He was honored by the naming  city’s central park after him.

The Americans hired Filipino, Japanese and Chinese workers to build Kennon Road, named after Col. Lyman Walter Vere Kennon who completed the project. Before this, the only road to Benguet was Naguilian Road, a mere horse trail then. 

Every summer, the American government transferred its operations to Baguio to escape Manila's sweltering heat. The Mansion House was built to become the seat of the government. This practice continued on during the Philippine Commonwealth period giving rise to beautiful vacation houses owned by rich Filipino families. Prime properties are still owned today

by the Philippine Government such as the Mansion House, Teachers Camp, Court of Appeals Compound, Supreme Court Compound, Comelec Compound, and others.   Baguio city's Session Road was named after the 1st Philippine Commission's session held in the summer of 1904.

The Americans brought with them education. The educators were  missionaries who had to teach English literacy in order to further Christianity among the Igorots (Baguio natives) who became quite fluent with the language. 

Although the Spaniards originally brought Christianity to Baguio, other foreign missionaries followed suit eventually owning large parcels of land as base for their contemplative life, teach health care, home crafts, and provide services to the community. A few of these places are Brent, Holy Ghost (Pink Sisters) Hill, St. Louis, Dominican Hill, Maryknoll, Good Shepherd and others.

A 695 hectare American military reservation was established called the John Hay Air Station after Pres. Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of State John Milton Hay. The base had several barracks, an Army hospital and a summer residence for the Governor-General such as Francis B. Harrison, Luke E. Wright, Leonard Wood, and others. Today the same house is used as a vacation house by the U.S.

Ambassador to the Philippines.

When WW2 broke, the city was not spared from aerial bombardments. In 1941 Baguio succumbed to the Japanese forces.  The air station station barracks were used as internment shelters. The American residence was used by General Tomoyuki Yamashita as his residence and headquarters. It was also where he and Vice Admiral Denshichi Okochi formally surrendered in 1945. In 1991, the Americans turned over the air station to the Philippine Government.

Sometime in the early 50’s, Baguio was introduced to us as alternative summer place from the sandy beaches of Cavite or 100 Islands. Our youth shielded us from the long arduous road trip from Manila up to the tip of the Zig-Zag (Kennon) road leading to Baguio.  The national highway then was rough and dusty often puncturing the tires of our American brand car or Pantranco buses we took. Upon reaching Baguio, we would spend weeks to a month enjoying the company of our relatives and close friends. Although the city felt and looked strange its cold climate, fog, pine forests and scent, fresh flowers and vegetables, red soil littered with quartz stones, ponies, and people who all looked similar, but different from us made our vacations truly memorable.

Our family house was designed with several rooms that could comfortably bunk up three to four families, but quite chilled. It has a fireplace where we lit pine wood roasting hotdogs and marsh mellows on sticks, a long dining table that served Baguio langgoniza (pork sausage), fried eggs and fried rice for breakfast, a living room to play board and card games, a huge downhill garden where we sped down with carton box sleds, and a terrace where we watched the cheesy looking moon surrounded with glittering stars.

 
Other times, we would hike the surrounding woods of Brent and Holy Ghost hills or head down Session road to shop at D &S for DC comics, eat freshly cooked chopsuey, sweet and sour pork with fried rice or just pancit (Chinese noodles) canton in Star Café, watch a movie at Session theater, buy groceries at U-Need or just purchase strawberries at the palenke (wet market). Or ride the scooter and motor cars in Burnham Park or play bowling at the Baguio Country Club.

My favorite activity was riding the Baguio ponies in woodsy trails reliving my passion for picture tube heroes like the Lone Ranger, the Lawman, and Davy Crocket. 

Throughout the coming years, the tradition of having Baguio as a special place for family vacation continued. Passing it down to the next generation not only for the summer months, semestral breaks, simple getting away from it all but most specially spending the Christmas season with the family.

Today, Baguio remains a rest and recreation city for the lowlanders. The John Hay Air Station is now open to the public and simply known as Camp John Hay. It is the classy recreation area version of Burnham Park offering a five star hotel and log house accommodations, 18 hole par 69 golf course, shops, grill and cafes, picnic grounds, convention center, to name a few.   Spiritual retreat houses, Inns, bed and breakfast, fast food, fine dining, bargain stalls and malls line the city. Numerous schools and colleges have mushroomed attracting local and Sokor migrants to over populate the city.

Flower growing, strawberries, cabbage, potato, carrots, lettuce, peas, and beans are Baguio's major produce, while coffee (Arabica or Benguet) growing introduced by the Spaniards still thrives. All these are colorfully displayed and freshly sold in the public market.   
 
Mining gold, silver, copper and other minerals continues in the Benguet. In the 1600's, gold was the lure that attracted the Spaniards to establish a base in Baguio. The Americans and Japanese fell for the same in the City of Pines.