The Koreans of Baguio

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY — Koreans have admittedly become one of the economic and tourism driving forces of Baguio or elsewhere in Northern Luzon and it is a shame seeing government officials and employees harassing them so they could squeeze money from them.

One need not go far to know who these government nincompoops are. Almost every mediaman knows who they are, particularly these petty bureaucrats who hang around places where Koreans conduct business or leisure.

At the Halfway House and golf driving range in Camp John Hay last week, these employees from the bureaus of Immigration and Internal Revenue were seen talking loud and drinking, hard, driving the Koreans and other golfers who were practicing or lounging away who couldn’t stand the noise from the group.
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Apparently, this group had reportedly been doing the rounds in some establishments interrogating Koreans and demanding money for imagined transgressions of the law.

Why were these government employees doing in the area in the middle of the day drinking during office hours and having a good time harassing golf players? They were supposed to be in their offices doing work for the taxes we are paying for their salaries.

Some city hall officials have also been doing the same thing in Korean establishments. Some have sent letters to Korean establishments saying these will be closed down for imagined transgressions. One establishment along Session Road was sent such letter even if the senders knew the place had a business permit.
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I have some Korean friends over the years and they have related to me horror stories of what these government officials and employees have been doing to them. They usually don’t complain for fear of being slapped with cases for imagined transgressions by these corrupt officials.

To the bosses of these officials, please look into the actuations of your men as they are giving your offices a bad reputation or we will elevate these to your central offices in Manila or to the Office of the President himself.
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But even those in the private sector have been milking them of money. I know a certain lawyer and his Filipino boss who had been taking a lot of money from a Korean they convinced to have business with that when the latter found out what they have been doing, he packed his bags and returned back to Korea.

With a new president of this Banana Republic who won on a platform of stopping corruption, maybe, we could redeem ourselves in the eyes of the world as a corrupt people by reporting the low life forms who apparently think only somebody from outer space can go after them, having it so good for many years.

Somehow, our officials who should be the epitome of being morally upright should set the example after almost a decade of impunity and going downhill under the former administration.
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It is a welcome development that despite harassments against them, several Korean organizations committed a donation of $40 million dollars (around P1.85 billion) to help the Baguio city government construct a sanitary landfill that will solve the prime tourist destination’s garbage woes.

Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan told newsmen the Korean grant will provide the local government options on how to permanently solve its solid waste management problem which has hounded residents the past two years.

Aside from pursing the construction of its sanitary landfill planned in Barangay Sto. Tomas Apugan, Domogan said the grant will also be sufficient to be utilized for the establishment of more materials recovery facilities (MRFs).

These MRFs in clustered barangays will allow biodegradable waste to be collected in communitiesl so residual waste will be the only thing dumped at the Irisan dump site.

Domogan however said the grant will only be given to the city government once the permanent site for the establishment of the landfill facility has been identified and cleared of obstructions.

To expedite the construction of the landfill project, the city mayor created a task force composed of technical people who will work full time so all concerns on the landfill will be settled before construction.

Domogan said there is a need for concerned city departments to work double time in constructing the needed MRFs and its engineered sanitary landfill to save millions of pesos in public funds which is just being wasted for the hailing of hundreds of tons of waste to a sanitary landfill in Tarlac.

In a World Bank-funded urban development for the city in 1998, one of the identified sites where to put up an engineered sanitary landfill was s the three-hectare city-owned property located between the barangays of Camp 7 and Sto. Tomas Apugan.

It is now being eyed for the city’s landfill project.

Considering the influx of local and foreign assistance to the city or elsewhere in the country, it is but proper for constituents particularly those in government to show respect and gratitude to our foreign benefactors like the Koreans.