Baguio connections 1
THIS week, this column begins a Baguio story that I have been wanting to see in print for the longest time. I have been hounding my mother to write the story, also for the longest time, and have now decided to do it myself. With her help.
The idea is to start with a name, connect it to others in natural progression, and end with another name with which the next column begins. So here we go.
We start with Gabriel Baban Keith, Jr. Why him? Because as my mother and I are watching one Kapihan or other this week, Gaby is emceeing (being with Baguio City Hall’s Press and Information Office), and I happen to ask her, “Is the Baban in Gaby’s name the same Baban of General Baban?”
It is the same Baban. My mother goes on to inform me that the mother of Gaby is Emma Baban Keith, whose sister is married to Dr. Perfecto Cating, brother of the Atty. Mos Cating, married to Zenaida Baptista Cating. Gaby himself confirms all this, and supplies the name of Dr. Cating’s wife: Ester, his mother’s sister. MY mother -- like I keep saying -- she knows these things.
And she remembers first meeting Zenaida Baptista at the induction of the first ever officers of
This principle is the quintessence of this third try to establish an autonomous region for the Cordilleras.
This means that the powers and benefits presently being exercised and enjoyed by local cogernment units in the Cordillera Administrative Region under the Local Government Code and other existing laws under an administrative se-up shall not be reduced or diminished under an autonomous region.
This means that the existing barangays, municipalities, cities and provinces shall continue to exist and to function and to be governed as such. As such, they will continue to be represented in governance by their respective punong barangays and barangay kagawads, mayors, vice-mayors and members of the sanggunian, and governors and vice-governors, as the case maybe.
This means that the present congressional or legislative districting of one each for the six Cordillera provinces and the City of Baguio shall be maintained.
This means that under autonomy, each of these aforesaid local government units shall continue to receive their Internal Revenue Allotments and their share from the national wealth and other taxes and all benefits presently due them under existing laws.
To stress the point, this much is clear: what is due to each local government unit under present laws shall not be withheld or shared with other local government units. This is the spirit of autonomy. It is autonomy within autonomy. start of the work week.
I was just happy to have asked for a schedule for a later time for this Monday meetings. They realize too the effect for timing for a later time than the rush hours. Although for one of this meetings, I had to take the diversion of using the Smart Connection of Mindanao Avenue, and avoiding traffic in Balintawak.
However manic a Monday should be, the last was not. I had a speaking engagement in Clark on a Sunday and asked the rest of my family if they would like to join me since Monday was declared a school holiday. Of course they did. A fast preparation of clothes to wear and off we were back the Baguio Correspondents’ Club in the early 1960s in the Pines Hotel of old, where my father “Dy-ans” and my godfather, Uncle Bert Floresca, were in attendance. My mother also says that Gus Saboy, father of my dear friend and colleague Scott Saboy, seems to have been at that same inaugural induction. As was Auntie Lily Yaranon, mein muder adds.
What she has to be reminded of is that there is also an Elsie Baban Veloso, married to Atty. Nick Veloso, this bit of data also emanating from Gaby. What my mother doesn’t know is that Gaby’s parents, Gabriel and Emma Keith, are authors of a book titled Kabayan Mummies: A Glimpse of Benguet (1981), available on Amazon.
The Baban sisters are the daughters of General Pedro and Priscilla Baban of La Trinided and Acop, Benguet, respectively.
Some of Gaby’s cousins on the Cating side went to Maryknoll Baguio when it had been renamed Marishan. One of them, Rocky, was my sister Annette’s classmate. These two were eager members of the Drama Club I oversaw when they were perhaps in fourth or maybe fifth grade at Maryknoll, the name we begin with next week.
Specifically, this means that what was, is and will be the share of a certain LGFU from national wealth and other taxes from the operation of gold or copper mines and hydro power plants within any of the provinces of the region shall totally and solely accrue to the local government unit.
{On this, then Benguet Gov. Raul Molintas lamented that the national government was withholding taxes generated from the operation of the gold mines in the province. It is a basic aim of autonomy to increase national fund support for the development of the Cordillera to correct this injustice of using the region’s natural wealth to speed up national development at the historical expense of the Cordillera.)
What would be shared by the LGUs under the autonomous set-up shall be new or additional subsidies and tax incentives and overdue development support from the national government for the autonomous region as specified in the autonomy bill.
It must be made clear here that autonomy would legally allow the national government to release these additional fund support and subsidies over and above what the LGUs are receiving under an administrative set-up. The arrangement is a payback of sorts.”
(This arrangement of providing preferential treatment to an autonomous region in recognition of the Cordillera’ s contributions to national development over the years may be untenable under an alternative federal set-up being proposed , as other regions would also clamor for the same preferential treatment.)
The autonomy bill likewise provides that the shares of provinces and cities from the national down. I was just in Manila for three meetings.
We decided to instead join our son who opted to remain down since the declared holiday was the middle of the week. And it would just be more troublesome if he went up to join us for just a couple of days. A bus too would have been a problem for him going up and down.
It was just an hour from Clark before we got to Quezon City for a late dinner at Mister Kebab before heading home to my son. Upon arrival we soon learned that his classes were also suspended for the next day, Monday. We all slept before the sun came up.
My body clock always dictates on me. I was up by eight. I take coffee and soon decided to pay bills being the last Monday of the month. It was so traffic coming out of our place. Glad to taxes shall be paid directly to them. This means that such shares shall no longer be coursed through the national government which, under the present set-up, had withheld the same.
The autonomy draft committee spelled out these principles and guidelines, stressing any breach of which would undermine the meaning and substance of self-rule which is, to repeat, autonomy-within-autonomy.
The questions (and fears) as culled from the latest autonomy information drive, remain anchored on these basics. Their repeated recurrence during consultations is signal for greater emphasis on the issues raised, like mined gold resources in Benguet, including energy generated by its dames being tapped by the lowlands and Metro-Manila instead of adjoining provinces.
While the answers are found in the printed autonomy bill and other reading materials being distributed, these need to be strengthened by more and more political leaders who leave the crucial autonomy advocacy to Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan and a few other government officials, including those whose positions were created under the interim regional administrative set-up so they could advocate self-rule.
Yet Domogan’s passion in advocating autonomy for the region has inspired politically inclined critics of self-rule to add to this conundrum their speculation that his personal push is to run for regional governor under the autonomy set-up.
“If only it’s allowed, they could include in the organic act a provision disallowing me to ruin for governor,” the mayor retorted. “It would help them focus on autonomy which should be the future of the Cordilleras. have decided to walk.
Before heading home I bought some papaya, pineapple and liempo for lunch. I fry up some samosas and reheat the pinakbet, both from Baguio. We had a good lunch. We all decided to watch some movies from Netflix after. Since it started to rain hard.
After the rain I got out to run and swim. I also decide to go out for a walk from the drizzle to buy for dinner. I decided on KFC. Kids were very happy. We prepared ourselves for the second series of Stranger Things. We all saved up to all watch it together.
All nine episodes finished. It is now Tuesday. We will head back to Baguio again just in time for All Saints Day. A first for some time as we are always away this day. I just love my Monday's. Goodbye October. Hello November.