28/08/2023
History of Baguio Series:
ππ₯π’π ππππππͺππ¬ π§π’ ππππ¨ππ’
(PART 1 of 4)
By Freddie Mayo and Ramon Dacawi
(Note on the authors: Frederic G. Mayo was one of the best feature writers and broadcast journalists from Baguio and the Cordillera who died in New York in 1997. Ramon Dacawi was a veteran journalist, environmentalist and philanthropist who passed on July of 2019. Both were pioneering members of the Baguio City Government Public Information Office.
PRE- HISTORY
Evidence shows that the general terrain on which the city of Baguio now stands rose from the sea several million of years ago. Fossils of crustaceans identified during the 1950s show that the latest that the area was underwater was during the Pliocene Age. Limestone formations of three or more layers measuring 20 meters thick contain coral fossils and have cracks from which form caves that are extremely permeable to water.
Over these rock formation is red mud, known as Terra Rosa which contains a large quantity of animal remains.
Then vegetation appeared in the eastern part of the city. The assortment of its vegetation is still a mystery. How the Benguet pine or Pinus Insularis, the Brazillian chayote or sayote, the Australian everlasting, the Benguet Lily and the native under-sized passion fruit or masaflora found their way into Baguioβs environs is still a mystery.
True enough, later species of flora which grew only in the temperate and seasonal climate of the northern hemisphere could be traced to the introduction of these plants by the Chinese, Japanese and the American, but the greater number of species are still unaccounted for.
Even before the Americans finally decided to set up a rest and recreation center in this section of the Cordillera, the Spaniards had already accumulated enough data about Baguioβs climate, plants and animal life, and its terrain to pre-empt any plan to establish a highland post in the place originally called Kafagway.
A member of the First Philippine Commission, Dean Connant Webster, heard that the place exists, from a Spanish forester while the latter was hunting tamaraw in Mindoro in 1892. He came to verify these reports only on 1900, and immediately fell in love with the place.
Later records would show that Kafagway was only composed of about seven houses as a rancheria of La Trinidad, Benguet. But then an observerβs report would claim that there were more than 21 houses, with a meeting hall. The disparity could be accounted for the fact that most of the people of Kafagway withdrew to the outskirts of the city to avoid the final confrontation between the Americans and the Spaniards.
Kafagway was inhabited by the Benguet Ibalois. Of the Benguets, then Minister of interior Worcester wrote: They were kindly, industrious, self respecting, silent tribe of agriculturists. They never indulged in head-hunting or caused any serious disturbance of public order, and had persistently refused to give up their ancient beliefs. When I first visited their country, I found their men clad in clouts, supplemented, in the case of the wealthy, by cotton blankets. The woman usually wore both skirts and upper garments, with bound towels over their heads as turbans.
Kafagway, on which the original Baguio townsite stands, means rono or grassy clearings. It was first mentioned by the Spaniard Quiranteβs report on the district of Antamok in 1624.
THE COMING OF THE AMERICANS
The drafter of Baguioβs charter, former Justice George Malcolm, said that his favorite city was still Baguio although he had already seen Simla in India.
Baguio could truly be called an American creation. The trip up originally was made in two stages. The first was by streamer from Manila to San Fernando, La Union. The second from San Fernando through the towns of Naguillian Sablan by horseback and then either up to Kafagway or La Trinindad which was then established as the capital of the Spanish comandancia.
In order to shorten the trip up to Baguio from Manila, work on the Benguet Road began on January 5, 1901 after the Philippine Commission appropriated US$50,000 for the construction of a connection from Dagupan, Pangasinan. The final cost would come to US$2 million and it would take Col. Lyman Kennon to complete it four years later. In January 1905, Col. Kennon rode up on the first wagon to reach the place over the newly constructed road, now named after him. Due to the initial enthusiasm of the first Philippine Commission, the early development of the city was not only well planned but also well funded.
In 1904, Architect Daniel Burnham who laid out the city of Chicago, visited Baguio and made a plan for its future development.
In the spring of 1905, the Baguio country Club was organized. The clubhouse was a βrude, grass-roofed shed made of pine slabsβ.
In 1908, a modern hospital and the governor-generalβs residence (now The Mansion, the officials summer residence of the president) were built.
In April, 1908, there was opened a βTeacherβs Campβ to which came American school teachers from all over the islands.
By the end of the first decade, Baguio found itself the proud possessor of a city hall, a storehouse, a corral, market buildings, a hospital-sanitarium, cottages for government officials, an automobile station, a garage, a plumping plant and laborersβ quarters.
THE IMMIGRANT
While the first immigrant to the general vicinity were probably traders and personnel of the Spanish Comandancia in La Trinindad (now capital of Benguet province), the first to Kafagway came up with the construction of the Kennon Road.
Motley of races manned this construction, notably the Chinese, Japanese, British, Americans, natives of the old Mountain Province, and Ilocanos from Eastern Pangasinan.
The Chinese and the Japanese, who were earlier recruited for the Benguet Road, got immediately assimilated into the cityβs lifestyle. They were mostly traders and merchants but later also found themselves developing the multi-million-peso highland vegetable industry in the hinterlands of Benguet. They were later joined by the old trading partners of the Ibaloi-Ilocanos from La Union and Ilocos Sur β who plied their trade via the newly opened Naguilian Road They also engaged in trade and barter, aside from joining the government service or as a teachers in the numerous schools which were put up for the cityβs primary and secondary education.
The Indians came in profusion shortly after the Second World War, and the Batanguenos soon after. The Muslims from the south, the Pampangos, the Visayans and the Bicolanos came soon after.
Together with the Americans who stayed behind, these immigrants developed a lifestyle which is uniquely that of Baguio.
Photo courtesy of Mr. Monch Salud David
