How Baguio rose from the killer quake 24 years ago

Liza T. Agoot

BAGUIO CITY -- The people of Baguio commemorate July 16  the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that brought this city to its knees and claimed 1,621 lives exactly 24 years ago.

For city residents who lived through the horror of the 1990 killer earthquake, many recall the unity and cooperation they exemplified in order to rise from ashes and rebuild the city from the ruins of tragedy.

“We were united and cooperated in endeavors that made us recover from the devastation faster than expected,” said Mayor Mauricio Domogan in his recollection of the events after the quake struck.

Following the devastation, Domogan recalled, businesses went bankrupt; there were no tourists coming over; migrants sold their properties and left the city; students who came to study here abandoned Baguio.

“What was left of Baguio were only the residents; the original Baguioans, who had no choice but to stay and do something to survive,” said Jonah, 56, a government employee, born and raised in Baguio.

Pictures would show flattened infrastructure, landslides, broken highways, fires, uprooted trees and a whole lot of rubble. There was nothing much left to be had.

But the miracle, Domogan said, is in the spirit of the people that business started to level up again in a matter of five years.

“To many, photographs of the Baguio earthquake illustrated destruction,” said lensman JJ Landingin. “But what many missed were the helping hands and the great human spirit.”

With help pouring in, the city’s annual budget immediately after the earthquake reach P100 million, recalled Domogan.

“It is now P1.3 billion,” he said.

Despite the years in between, remembering today what rocked the city 24 years ago still pinches a lot of grief, mediamen here said.

It is for this reason that a tradition began by members of the local media then, led by PepotIlagan and Willy Cacdac (now both deceased), is still continued today by the city government – the planting memorial trees in the Busol watershed area, a 336 hectare forest reservation bounded by this city and La Trinidad, Benguet.

Ramon Dacawi, Baguio City government information office chief, said he, Ilagan and Cacdac pushed for this activity and invited students to join them to remind Baguioans of the many people who died and how life continues for those who loved them dearly.

Dacawi said the memorial tree-planting Wednesday was intended to commemorate the recent passing of two mediamen: newspaper columnist Dr. Charles Cheng and Edward Sacgaca of the Philippine Information Agency.

“Each of their families will plant a pine tree seedling, they will have to take care of what they planted to always remind them that after the death of their loved one, a new life will grow.”

Adopting the Ifugao concept of “muyong,” representatives of the Cheng and Sacgaca families, as well as students from different schools, will plant and clean their respective “muyongs.”

The muyong is a traditional system of sustaining water for the rice paddies at the centuries-old rice terraces and almost 100 percent of the public elementary schools today have adopted and maintained their own muyong.

These adopted muyongs have become known as the city government’s eco-walk program that earned a “Galing Pook” Award and was recognized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as an effective program to engage pupils in environmental protection, so that life will truly go on for everyone.