BENCHWARMER
Ramon S. Dacawi
Cordillerans who
have resettled in Northern California reached out to their homeland last
Tuesday by dispatching their chief to a remote, pine-clad barangay in Sabangan,
Mt. Province to jumpstart the building of the upland community’s waiting
shed-cum-barangay hall.
Art Bulayo, the
president of BIBAK-Northern California, motored from Baguio to the end of the
road in barangay Data where residents want to construct a waiting shed to
protect them from the elements while waiting for a ride to transport their farm
produce to the outside world.
Village chief
Gabriel Lantec led his village in receiving P200,000 ($5,000) raised by members
of the organization of Cordillera expatriates in the San Francisco Bay
area of the most populous state of the United States.
California
also has the largest number of Filipino immigrants in the U.S. (787,422, or 46.7 percent of
the Filipino-born population
in 2008).
(BIBAK stands for
Benguet-Ifugao-Bontoc-Apayao-Kalinga, referring to the original
sub-provinces of the Cordillera. Other BIBAK chapters also operate in
other countries, with the acronyms of some amended to jibe with the present
composition of the Cordillera Region, like BIMAAK in the East Coast of
the United States which stands for Benguet-Ifugao-Mt.
Province-Apayao-Abra-Kalinga.)
Lantec, in a letter
of gratitude earlier sent to Bulayo, said the project would be completed this
December, before the barangay fiesta.
“Our deepest
gratitude to all of you members of the BIBAK Northern California, U.S.A. for
choosing our barangay as the recipient of your yearly financial assistance for
community development through Mr. DoroteoTade,” Lantec wrote. “We gently
appreciate it.”
The project site on
a bluff offers a panoramic view of Data’s rice terraces and the neighboring
villages of Nacagang, also in Sabangan, and Suyo, Ankiling, Bugang and Ambasing
in Sagada town.
That’s why the top
of the building was designed for a view deck, Lantec explained.
With Bulayo to
document the turn-over was journalist Harley Palangchao, president of the
Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club who visited Northern California in
September last year as a member of a goodwill mission to Vallejo, Baguio’s sister-city
in the Bay Area.
For years now,
members of the BIBAK have been teaming up with the Baguio Californians in
hosting visiting officials and residents of Baguio and the Cordillera through
dinners or traditional canaos, guided tours and amenities.
Even a personal
visit by a Baguio resident is enough reason for an instant hosting by Baguio
and Cordillera expats, Palangchao noted.
Once in a while,
expat musicians the likes of Joel Aliping and Conrad Marzan would mount folk
concerts at the parish of Fr. Leonard Oakes in Daly City to raise funds for
seriously ill patients back home. Now and then BIBAK officers would also
pass the hat for the same purpose.
This early, Bulayo
has ordered 700 tickets printed for BIBAK Northern California’s annual grand canao
set in September next year and has started sounding off the 400 or so members
for the celebration.
Aside from serving
as a fund-raiser for outreach projects back home, the canao has become a
powerful rallying point to nurture the expats’ sense of identity and linkage to
the Cordillera.
Serving with Bulayo
in the BIBAK board are Joel Aliping – vice-president; Fina Pengosro –
secretary; Simona Cecil – asst. secretary; Theodora Pengosro – treasurer;
Judith Dulay – asst. treasurer; Sobrena Somebang – auditor; John Dyte,
Dorothy Pucay and Mark Watan – press relations officers.
Composing the
board are Salve Agiao, PilarManno-Marzan, Tony Buangan, Edgar Cadwising,
Felix Dontogan, Johnny Khangab, Miguel Labon, Johnny Mazna-a, Rev. Leonard
Oakes, Madeline Pengosro and DoroteoTade while Victor Pengosro chairs the
burial aid program. – Ramon Dacawi.
***
Elderly pedestrians
and the disabled who, until recently, risked being booked for jaywalking or,
worse, being sideswiped by motorists for crossing that opening below the
overpass near the Malcolm Square, will no longer be apprehended and, hopefully,
can cross to safety safely.
While the
Department of Public Works and Highways is into to erasing some of the city’s
old sidewalks to give space to motorists, the city engineer’s office has
restored the said “blue lane” for senior citizens and people with disabilities
who can not climb up the overpass in going to the market or to the square.
The reopening of
the pedestrian access along Magsaysay Avenue serves as a modest counterpoint to
the reduction of pedestrian lanes, topped by the recent obliteration of a
portion of the sidewalk along Leonard Wood Road in a DPWH concreting project to
widen the space for cars to pass through along the national highway leading to
Pacdal and Mines View Park.
Revival of the
walkway was prompted by a resolution the city council adopted last October
calling on the city engineer’s office to address the clamor of senior citizens
and differently-abled persons for dignity in and equal access to the urban
space.
Elderly residents
serving as city officials for a day under the yearly observance of Elderly
Filipino Week in October had passed several resolutions urging the
restoration of the “blue lanes” in accordance with national and city laws.
The right to access
of the elderly and PWDs to spaces and street crossings within the city is
provided under Ordinance 108-2008 and Ordinance 32-2009 of the city council.
The second
ordinance authored by vice-mayor Daniel Farinas directs the installation of
additional blue lanes or pedestrian crossings for the elderly and differently
abled at Abanao St., Session Road, Harrison Road, City Hall area, Magsaysay
Avenue to the city public market and other areas near commercial
establishments.
Contrary to the
spirit of the ordinance, some blue lanes were closed by concrete walls or
fences dividing the vehicle lanes along the city’s main streets.
In silent defiance,
senior citizens going to and from the market, risked being bumped by cars by
crossing Magsaysay Avenue through a small portion of the road not blocked by
concrete dividers, except a movable iron bar.
Last week, the city
engineer’s office set up a sign declaring it as a pedestrian access for the
elderly and the disabled. The “blue lane” mark on the street surface to
indicate the same as such, however, needs repainting.
The push for
dignity in and equal access to the urban space, specially for pedestrians and
bicyclists is championed by urban planner, Dr. Enrique Penalosa, the
former mayor of Bogota, Colombia and now a fellow of New York University.
“A city is made for
people, not for cars,” Dr. Penalosa said in a keynote at the 2005 international
conference on urban planning in Sweden. “ Throughout history,” he added, “there
were more people killed by cars than by wild animals in the forest.”
Urban planning, he
said, should take into account the right of the pedestrian for access to and
mobility within the urban landscape.
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