Mayor Halsema is turning in his grave

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

David March Fianza

Happy anniversary to the Charter City of Baguio. When insan Roger Sinot Sr. suggested that we Ibaloys join the celebration-parade, I told him that we should not because Charter Day was the time when Baguio was taken away from the Ibaloys. Why celebrate?  

Popularly known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines before and after World War 2, this resort city’s colonial mayor was born in Ohio, USA in 1882. Having difficulty in looking for a job in his homeland, the 25-year old Civil Engineer graduate of the Ohio State University volunteered to work under the Bureau of Public Works of the American colonial government. 

In 1920 Eusebius Julius Halsema was appointed by the American Governor General as mayor of the “highest” city in Asia that sits at more than 5,000 feet above sea level, aside from becoming city engineer and district engineer of Benguet. He held these positions from 1920 until 1937 when he was replaced by the first Igorot mayor. 

Prior to his appointment as Baguio mayor, he constructed the Osmeña Waterworks in Cebu. Later, Engr. Halsema left for the US to marry his wife and immediately came back with her to the Philippines. Upon his return, he was assigned as public works engineer for Pampanga before reconstructing the Manila Port in 1916. When World War 01 broke out in 1918, he volunteered in the US Army Corps of Engineers. Upon returning a year later, Halsema finished the railroad to the Zamboanga coal mines.

On account of written and unwritten stories about Baguio, I am made to believe that the engineer-mayor’s stay in office was the primary motivation for the colonial government to improve the village of more or less 3,000 Ibaloy souls from being an American hill station to a thriving community with 30,000 occupants belonging to a mixture of cultures. 

During his term, city roads were widened and paved and the first light airplane landed at the Loakan airfield. But the most important and most famous work by Halsema was the construction of the Mountain trail that was later named after him. Halsema started paving the mountain road in 1919 while he was Baguio mayor, city engineer and district engineer of Benguet. Although enveloped by fog most of the time, the slippery road was opened to vehicular traffic in 1930. 

Since he was city and provincial district engineer at the same time, it was also during Halsema’s term when the Asin hydro-electric plant was built to energize Pine lumber sawmills that supplied Pine timber to the gold mines. In 1937, Halsema’s 29 years of public service came to an end. 

In 1941, Eusebius and his wife were taken prisoners by the Japanese soldiers and released in 1943 but continued to stay in the city. Their two children and son-in-law were imprisoned in a camp in Manila until the Americans liberated the Philippines in 1945. Still, the Japanese continued to occupy Baguio so that it was necessary for the Americans to bomb the city. 

Baguio residents, Filipino and American soldiers had to use Notre Dame Hospital as an air-raid shelter due to the bombings. On March 15, 1945 the bombers came but Halsema preferred to stay in a room next to the doctor's office as he was recovering from a bout of dysentery. He was killed when bombs hit the hospital, his body crushed under the concrete walls. He was buried in the Baguio cemetery.

Somewhere in an almost forgotten spot just a few yards around the centermost section of the Baguio Cemetery, one will find the words “Baguio is his monument” etched on a cement slab. The grasses on the spaces around the gravestone have grown over waist-high, an indication that the corner has been forgotten for a long time. That is where Eusebius Julius Halsema, Baguio’s longest serving American mayor was buried along with his wife, Marie Boesel Halsema. 

In 1984, then Mayor Ernesto H. Bueno presented to the children of the late Eusebius Julius Halsema – Mrs. Betty H. Foley and Mr. James Halsema, the "Baguio Medal", a posthumous award in recognition for their father’s outstanding public service to Baguio. Better late than never. Sadly, in Philippine standards, public officials can only go that far in honoring remarkable and dedicated public servants. In most cases, that is all they can do.

There were four other Americans who were appointed as mayors for Baguio during its formative years before EJ Halsema took over from February 7, 1920 - May 31, 1937. They were E. W. Reynold (September 1, 1909 - February 5, 1910), E. A. Eckman (March 1, 1910 - April 1913), A. D. Williams (May 24, 1913 - May 16, 1918) and C. S. Dandois (June 10, 1918 - December 19, 1919). They were followed by Filipino mayors who were elected.

By all means, the past administrators, dead or alive could have wanted that nobody tampered with the blueprint development of Baguio as envisioned by the urban planner Arch. Daniel Burnham and wished for by simple but genuine Baguio folks. The unsophisticated Burnham plan that was closest to the hearts of Baguio people was sustained by Mayor-Engr Halsema. 

The old city was closest to nature – not too much concrete, no overcrowding, no traffic jams, no unending TSA applications, no serious garbage problem, controlled commercialization, no leasing of public parks, no private establishments at the skating rink, and no parking construction under Melvin Jones, among others. But that’s not now if you look around. EJ Halsema is turning in his grave.