Mercylynne and forgotten spot of Mayor Halsema

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

Years ago, I learned a lesson in life from Mang Luis, a farmer in Barangay Baan, Aritao, Nueva Viscaya who has to walk three kilometers from the main highway to reach his farm.

One evening, he was about to walk the distance when I chanced upon him. Having traveled the unpaved and rugged foot trail myself, I imagined how a 70-year old farmer could negotiate his way at night, encountering NPAs or nice people around at certain times.

I offered him my flashlight to which he quickly refused. Instead, he said it is safer to walk through the fields without any light or under cover of darkness, saying further that life-threatening accidents come according to God’s will.

When asked if he believed in what he just said, he cited instances where there are people who meet accidents often but still survive, while there are newborns who have yet to open their eyes to the world when their lives are suddenly snuffed out.

The farmer believed that such instances were all God’s will – and that we all have destinies written on our palms. His unsolicited advice was that I should be able to move on with whatever fate I have.

Our friend Mercylynne Sixto Bastian was held hostage by the Big C for around three years. Only she can describe the pain she experienced, and all that her relatives and friends could do was to comfort her.

Last Monday, after being stuck for a long time, she moved on. And I remember my conversation with Mang Luis. What came to Mercy that fateful morning was God’s will. It was also a signal that she was healed.

The healing that came to her is also a sign that her family, relatives and friends can now move on. So long Mercy. Your memories and songs live on.

***

Unrivaled in treatment to money-making ordinances, the grasses around the burial grounds of Eusebius Julius Halsema, Baguio’s last serving American mayor and his wife, Marie Boesel Halsema have grown waist-high.

This means that the corner of Mayor Halsema has been neglected for a long time. The CEPMO and our concerned city officials have even allowed adjacent gravesites to encroach the space allotted for the Halsema couple. Our officials stopped cleaning the Halsema couple’s graveyard because anyway they gain no benefit from it. 

In an almost forgotten spot just a few yards around the center section of the Baguio Cemetery, one will no longer find the words “Baguio is his monument” etched on a cement slab.

For no good reason, with bad taste and bad grammar, somebody changed the epitaph to “The mayor who engineered Baguio City”. This destroys history because the original epitaph were exactly the words that his family wrote on his grave.

The epitaph should be returned to its original text. Indeed, in honor of the best mayor Baguio ever had, beautifying and redesigning EJ Halsema’s graveyard into a more prominent area will not hurt the coffers of the city. 

Except for some Baguio old timers who are aware, the graves of the first American mayor of the Charter City of Baguio and his wife are unnoticed and regarded by passers-by as ordinary burial grounds.

EJ Halsema was no ordinary engineer volunteer for the Bureau of Public Works, considering that he served as mayor of Baguio, then the capital of Benguet, and district engineer of Benguet at the same time.

Hence, he developed many parts of the city during its infancy, gradually transforming it from a sleepy Ibaloy community to a flourishing city with paved roads and it was during his term as mayor when the first light airplane landed at the Loakan airfield.

As mayor, he made sure that the city allotted budget subsidies for the establishment of the Mountain Province High School (now Baguio City High School), the construction of Burnham Park city auditorium, market and numerous elementary schools.

In 1919, he carved a mountain road from La Trinidad in Benguet to Bontoc with the cooperation of people living along its route. The road, then popularly known as “Mountain Trail” was shrouded by fog most of the time and was opened to vehicular traffic in 1930. It was later named Halsema Highway in memory of him.

In 1990, some kiss-ass advisers of President Cory changed the mountain highway’s name to Ninoy Aquino Highway but the Igorots who traverse it daily refused to recognize the replacement because they know history.

It was also during his time when the Asin hydro-electric plant in Nangalisan, Tuba was built to energize a lumber sawmill at Tadiangan, Tuba that supplied Pine timber to the gold mines in Benguet.

Past city administrators could have wanted that nobody tampered with the blueprint development of Baguio as envisioned by the urban planner Architect Daniel Burnham and wished for by genuine Baguio folks.

             The simple Burnham plan that was closest to the hearts of Baguio people was sustained by Mayor Halsema. The old city was closest to nature with not too much concrete, no traffic jams, no squatters and no TSA applications over forest lands.

              There was no serious garbage problem then, no leasing of roads and public parks, no private management at the skating rink, and no proposals for a parking construction under Melvin Jones. But that’s not now if you look around.

              On March 15, 1945; Engr. EJ Halsema was killed when Japanese bombs hit the Notre Dame Hospital where he was recovering from a bout of dysentery. His body was crushed under the concrete walls.

Mayor Halsema and his wife were buried just a few yards around the center section of the Baguio Cemetery, now a forgotten spot.