MORE NEWS, BAGUIO CITY

Tribal youth dance for a cause along Session Road
By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- An Igorot youth cultural troupe from Lucnab barangay is giving a humanitarian dimension to the Baguio Flower Festival with nightly performances-for-a-cause along the city’s main street where commercial stalls were set up for the “Session Road in Bloom” feature.

The troupe calling itself “Simit” ( plant shoot) has been drawing crowds with its gong beats and dances so passers-by can drop donations intended for a 15-year old boy who needs P600,000 for a major surgery to mend four defects in his heart. “The parents can hardly raise even a portion of the amount needed and this is all we can do for now to whittle down the cost a little bit,” explained Manny Gayao, former PTA president of Lucnab elementary school and troupe coordinator.

The patient is Roldan Cuyango-an, a second-year student whose heart condition was diagnosed as tetralogy of fallot. The medical term points to four congenital defects: ventricular septal defect (VSD) or a hole in the septum, the wall dividing the left and right ventricles, pulmonary stenosis or narrowing of the pulmonary valve, right ventricular hypertrophy or thickening of the right ventricle, and overriding aorta, which is located between the ventricles, directly above the VSD. Roldan has no way to go but surgery.

His father, Alfredo, is a construction laborer, and his mother, Esther, is a utility worker. Responding to the family’s appeal for help, the Lucnab barangay council recently adopted a resolution creating a “Binnadang di E-Lucnab” to help raise money towards the boy’s deliverance.

As in previous medical cases in the community, Gayao started the drive last year by organizing a youth variety show that raised P12,000. “We hope people shopping at the “Session Road in Bloom” will be generous so we can come a little closer to the P600,000 goal,” Gayao said.

Meanwhile, other Samaritans continue sending their support to other patients. From Canada, Freddie de Guzman said he will send some amount for the chemotherapy of six-year old leukemia victim John Brix de Guzman. Freddie has been bankrolling the boy’s treatment for months now, aside from supporting Nora (not her real name), a mother of three suffering from psychosis, and dialysis patient Filbert Almoza. From Kentucky, an Ibaloi expatriate sent $200, the latest in a series of contributions since the other year.

An equal amount sent earlier helped pay for the funeral expenses of the family of Ericka Madriaga (P4,000) , a 10-year old girl who succumbed to bone cancer, maintenance medicines for breast cancer survivor Rosa Ann Cordova ( P561) and 82-year old Melecio Besara (P3,000), a war veteran and former outstanding trickster. From the expat’s fund, P1,380.09 was given as aid to Marilou Serrano, an unemployed widow raising her three young children since her husband Rodel died of cancer in February last year.

A total of P1,500 from an P8,000 donation of another anonymous Samaritan was handed to Jun Villegas, a farmer suffering from respiratory ailment. Earlier, P4,000 helped Mary Ann Benito helped pay costs of spinal surgery for his brother Pablo Langpawen.

A fund set up by a woman civic leader who also requested anonymity paid for the chemotherapy of 12-year old cancer patient Jose Gundino (P12,000) and the medications of heart patient Geraldine Agustin (P5,000) and another patient (P5,000) suffering from arthritis with complications.

Still another anonymous donor gave P3,000 for the dialysis treatment of ailing lawyer Amado Adquilen, P5,500 for the chemo of cancer patient Myrna Buhong, P3,162 for the medicines of stroke victim Juanito Mejia and P3,000 for another Samaritan who had fallen ill.

Things are also looking up for 35-year old James Andrada, a virtual orphan who never saw his parents and is now fighting rectal cancer. Five Samaritans who hardly know each other pooled P12,500 for his third chemotherapy on March 5. Two other donors earlier paid for his second treatment session.

Now needing immediate support is 27-year old Veronica Lee who underwent kidney transplant in 2002 but eventually had kidney failure last year and now has to go back to twice-a-week dialysis treatment. Veronica, whose father, the late George Lee, was a familiar figure as waiter at Sunshine Lunch beside the Malcolm Square, is staying with an aunt in Pico, La Trinidad. She can be contacted through cell phone number 0906380456.


Councilmen ‘do a Marikina’ with strict anti-vending drive
By Isagani S. Liporada

BAGUIO CITY – City officials here are now strictly implementing anti-vending laws to unclog streets from illegal vendors. “In Marikina, any obstruction along easements are garbage whether or not they are in fact garbage, goods for sales, or tools of trade. They are summarily picked up and disposed of, no questions asked,” said public order and safety division chief Gregorio Deligero. “I hope we could do the same in Baguio.

”Deligero was part of the team of city legislators and executive officials who visited Marikina, January, to observe local government “best practices” that the city may adopt. Of the officials to Marikina, 10-councilors last week joined hands to make the “Deligero dream” come true, proposing a measure “regulating the use of city streets, sidewalks, bridges, parkways and overpasses” in the city.

Penned jointly by councilors Elaine Sembrano and Perlita Rondez, the measure consolidates all anti-easement encroachment measures that now, explicitly provides for the immediate confiscation or removal of goods, tools of trade, and other impediments “without prior notice.” Co-authoring the measure were vice mayor Daniel Farinas and aldermen Sembrano, Rondez, Weygan, Tabora, Carino, Tabanda, Aliping, Balisong, and Bagbagen.

The measure expanded the anti-encroachment campaign including prescriptions against well-placed businesses coddling hawkers and themselves encroachers of easements; holding of private and religious activities along passageways; parking of vehicles for sale; display of commercial signs and ads; placing any form of goods and devices along easements; holding gatherings along streets; and the placing of any junk or wastes albeit temporary, among others.

“Try hanging your clothes and chaining your dogs along public easements and you’ll find yourselves without anything to change on or no dogs to cuddle one of these days,” Sembrano in a separate interview added in jest.

Changing the tone of her boys to serious mode she adds, “…But of course, if it will make our streets clean and our city much more attractive, the city would seize your dogs and clothes… In fact, their confiscation is provided for in the measure.”

Under the proposal, the POSD of the mayor’s office led by Deligero would likewise be buttressed by elements of the Baguio City Police Office, City Buildings and Architecture Office, and the City Engineer’s Office, and Barangay officials.

Private residents violating the ordinance shall be fined from P1-thousand to P5-thousand with penalties ranging from public service to imprisonment; business establishments shall be fined from P10-thousand to P100-thousand plus penalties ranging from confiscation of goods, temporary closure, and revocation of business licenses.

Vendors, on the other hand, shall be fined P1-thousand for the first offense plus confiscation of goods and tools of trade; fined P3-thousand, confiscation, and/or 50-hours community service for the second; and P5-thousand and or imprisonment for the third.

The city government reserves the right at its option to dispose all illegal structures, materials and goods that are confiscated “in any manner most convenient and safe,” including appropriating goods for charitable purposes, jail use, relief operations.

Meantime, Tabanda and councilor Nicasio Palaganas for their part introduced an allied measure providing for the identification of relocation sites where ambulant vendors may be relocated. This, pursuant to Executive Order No. 452, series of 1997, ensuring the security of registered vendors in the workplace.