Killer earthquake recalled at Busol watershed tree- planting

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – Barangay officials and media practitioners trooped to Busol watershed last July 16 for city’s the annual earthquake memorial rites in honor of those who perished in the killer temblor 29 years ago.

Punong barangays, kagawads and volunteers from the city’s 20 districts,  print and broadcast media members of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC) headed by radio anchor Jordan Tablac and members of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO)headed by Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Officer IV Yolanda Munar hiked and planted pine tree saplings at the watershed as living memorials in honor of the victims under the Eco-Walk environmental awareness program pioneered by the media group in 1992.

The BCBC members set aside saplings in honor of their recently departed colleagues media gurus and BCBC elders Narciso Padilla, Domecio Cimatu, Ramon Dacawi who brained the Eco-Walk program and the tree memorial rites and retired Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon.

The club along with former councilor and Eco-Walk partner Peter Fianza also sponsored the traditional pig offering and prayer ritual for the souls of the departed and for deliverance from similar calamities led by a “mambunong” or native priest in keeping with the indigenous tradition of the Cordillerans.

BCBC member and documentarist Art Tibaldo led the lecture on the beginnings and objectives of the Eco-Walk children’s environmental awareness program which had tutored countless elementary school pupils and even adults on the importance of trees and forests.

The media group had kept the memorial tradition with the city government for years now to nurture the living memorials for the victims which was broached in 1997 by the late newsman Jose Nicolas “Peppot” Ilagan in lieu of setting up a “cold, non-living marker.”

The annual earthquake memorial activity is part of the month-long line-up of activities for the celebration of the National Disaster Consciousness Month spearheaded by the CDDRMO which will be capped by an earthquake simulation drill on July 31 at City Hall.

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Mayor Benjamin Magalong directed the chairmen of the 128 barangays and owners of all accommodation establishments in the city to submit updated data on tourist arrivals for the city to have accurate information.

In Memorandum No. 211-19 dated July 10, the mayor urged the barangay heads to submit to the Office for Administration - Tourism and Special Events Division an updated inventory of primary tourism enterprise such as hotels, resorts, apartelles, pension houses, inns, transient houses and others in their areas of jurisdiction on or before August 1.

They were also to ensure that all of these accommodation establishments are periodically submitting their reports on tourist arrival in line with section 3 Rule 4 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Ordinance No. 120 series of 2017.

In a separate letter, the mayor asked the managers and proprietors of hotels, resorts, apartelles, pension houses, inns and transient houses to comply with the requirement for them to submit such reports.

He said the city ordinance mandates them to religiously submit standard data on tourist arrivals as part of efforts to strengthen the gathering of data on tourist influx and tourism activities.

This is also in compliance to Republic Act No. 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009 which stresses on Local Tourism Development Planning and mandates local government units to provide reports periodically on the status of tourism statistics and inventory of resources to the Department of Tourism “to ascertain the economic and social impact of tourism.”

Moreover, the Dept. of Interior and Local Government issued Memorandum Circular No. 2019-17 requiring all Primary Tourism Enterprise (PTE) to obtain accreditation from the Dept. of Tourism.