The ‘Baguio bubbles’ – all signs of bursting are there!

IT is in a geo-physical and environmental sense that “bubbles” is used in this column piece. There is limited official data used, nor was there information obtained in private interview with sources that will buttress this personal observation.

Hence, this account is anchored on random attention and cognition by one who has been writing keenly on conservation matters and environmental events for nearly two decades now.

For example, It is easy for the newspaper-reading public to assume that the Duterte administration is dead serious about environmental subjects – their preservation, enhancement and, yes, protection.

One can just gauge the President’s personal interest in the choice of the secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and his hands-on involvement in practically all aspects of this agency’s mandated tasks.

In fact, in a recent event, it was the Chief Executive and his environment advisers who first gave the public the warning sign – “Boracay bubbles!”

“They are about to burst,” they warned.

The President’s concern is not without reason, but he has facts and figures to prop up his assessment.

Truth to tell, many of us only got to read the phrase, “holding capacity” of a place. It means the ideal number of people that a certain place or area can host, with it giving that population the benefits of comfort and well-being, health and sanitation, and livelihood and prosperity, these gifts all deriving from their natural surroundings.

All of the above are supposedly supported by the natural bounties obtainable and sustainable in that place.

Citing as an example is Boracay. Its holding capacity is only good for 100,000 people each year. It is now being crammed by an aggregate of three million tourists annually, according to published reports.

In the case of Baguio City, it was designed at the turn of the 20th century for only 30,000 residents. By the 1950s, it was already hosting around 100,000 inhabitants. Today, the Pines City is virtually grimacing in pain as 345,366 people squeeze themselves in a place that is only 57.51 square kilometers.

I beg our readers not to ask me what is the transient population of Baguio during the summer months, Christmas holidays, or the Holy Week. One visible “bubble” of the city is overpopulation, that is for certain.

Compared this with my birthplace, Calbayog City, also a first-class city, which has an area of 90,300 hectares, but has only 183,651 residents.

But retail business must be good up there. It has some 18,578 establishments. Credit that to the over-expanding population, plus its transients in those days cited above. But retail prices of basic consumer goods are much higher compared to those in the lowlands of the region. The reason for this is the higher distribution costs of wholesalers who transport their merchandise to Baguio retailers, adding up the cost, via diesel-fed trucks and vans.

Some six years ago, I wrote about Baguio’s unseen downside – pollution. DENR people explained that the main cause of its high carbon dioxide level is the abundance of obnoxious fumes emitted by diesel-run cargo carriers loaded with basic commodities dayin and day-out from suppliers in the lowlands.

Since Baguio’s geographical location is mountainous and inland, it gets a daily dose of the deadly vehicular emissions. The same lethal exhausts that suffocate Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi and some highly urbanized American cities and, of course, downtown Manila and EDSA.

Another prominent “bubble” that Baguio is vulnerable to are those unsightly cliff-hanging dwellings on the slopes of mountains surrounding Baguio.

No amount of psychedelic paintings splashed on their front walls can hide the eyesore. Their very location alone is surely life-threatening to informal dwellers there.

I am sure tourists from Latin American countries are surprised to see the Baguio version of Brazil’s “favela” communities!

Another downside: Owing to a miniscule stretch of city streets (maybe, not more than 50 kilometers), vehicle congestion can happen 24/7.

Our family of 10, including “balikbayan” daughter Yael, went up to Baguio during the Holy Week. In the morning of Holy Monday, we attempted to go downtown, park the vehicles there, and walk along Session Road, with a planned first-stopover at the Baguio Cathedral.

My two sons who were driving their respective vehicles decided to abort the plan when, nearing Teachers’ Camp, vehicular traffic was virtually unmoving. In so many inter-sections, I saw only two policemen desperately trying to untangle the traffic.

The following day, I had the chance to talk to three Baguio residents: A lady vegetable stallholder in a public market, a taxi driver, and a male restaurant manager. They had the same reason to my query about the possible degradation of their beloved city.

“We are alarmed, and we hope we can do our share to help forestall those realities. This is the only place we know, and it has always been kind to us, to our family.”