Having witnessed and at times when necessary participated in, and now looking back at the local politics in Baguio in the last 25 years, I can’t help but be reminded of something Robert R. Reed said in his book, City of Pines: The Origins of Baguio as a Colonial Hill Station and Regional Capital. The book focused mainly on the history of Baguio from the time it was discovered first by the Spaniards who were the first to dream of establishing a health and recreational center in the area to its early years as a city. In the part about the drafting of the charter of the city, Reed shared that the principal author, George Malcolm, wrote a constitution that aimed to shield Baguio from petty politics.
One of the mandates of the charter that I believe served this purpose was that Baguio’s mayors were appointed by the president and not elected. Though whether this actually served Baguio’s interests better as opposed to having them elected is of course arguable. But in an interview I had with the late Leony San Agustin, one of the famous “Three Witches of Baguio” (along with the late Gene de Guia and Cecile Afable), she did recall that the massive migration to Baguio from nearby provinces which resulted in rampant squatting on both public and private lands began when the mayoralty became an elective office which had politicians encouraging people from their hometowns to make residency in Baguio to amass votes.
The practice of appointing Baguio’s chief executive lasted until the 1950s. On March 1, 1960, the citizens of Baguio saw Luis L. Lardizabal assume office as their first duly-elected mayor. I cite this not as an endorsement of the less democratic process of having chief executives appointed, but merely to illustrate how petty politics, in its different forms, can render institutions inutile and unresponsive to the needs of the city.
And politics, whether petty, traditional, dirty or downright rotten permeates not only pubic service but many other areas of the community. Like art.
When I was approached early last year by Baguio Arts and Crafts Collective, Inc. (BACCI) Chairperson Adelaida Lim to initially be involved in the organization and eventually to spearhead the staging of the second Baguio Creative City Festival, I was apprehensive. I have heard of the confrontational nature of its meetings during its inception with stories of shouting matches between its founders which included both persons regarded as institutions themselves in the local art and culture scene and emerging culture bearers.
These scenarios aren’t new – it’s like a monster that keeps on rearing its ugly head at almost every attempt at organizing the creative community. I have seen this play out in many assemblies involving artists in the past, foremost of which would be the fateful meeting that forced the late Santiago Bose to quit as chair of the Baguio Arts Guild in 2002. Santiago Bose passed away later that year, and while medical records may state the cause of death in more scientific terms, I believe he died of a broken heart.
Before that tragic coup, there was that Tejeros Convention-esque assembly in the late 90’s that saw the dissolution of the then current set of officers and the establishment of an interim board of directors which was not honored and downrightly rejected by some of the former. I opted to walk and stay away from all that in 1997, just as I did in 2002.
In the years that followed, I, along with members of the theater group I founded, Open Space, created, produced and presented theatrical performances independently. And by independent I mean from institutions both governmental and private. And those were what I would consider the halcyon days of the group. In the decade that followed, Open Space staged at least two major productions every year, one for each semester as the academe was and still is the primary source of patronage for theater in Baguio. And those productions got patronage from outside the city which had the group travelling to nearby provinces and at times much farther as in the performance of the twin-bill “Tonyo/Pepe” in Daet, Camarines Norte. While we did get the occasional minor sponsorships from private corporations, we survived mainly from the measly gate receipts of those productions and the sacrifice of the artists themselves and their commitment to and faith in the craft as a valuable means of presenting relevant social and cultural issues. The makeshift theaters – multipurpose halls and auditoriums, gymnasiums, classrooms and in one instance all the way down in Tayug, Pangasinan, a shed – these became not only the venues for our stories, but our refuge, our sanctuary, our insulation from the pervasive petty politics that was eating into larger art organizations.
I still dream of a means to unify, unionize the artists of Baguio that would empower, protect and serve the interests of the sector and where issues affecting artists, individually and collectively, may be objectively presented, discussed and addressed and initiatives aren’t at the mercy of the powers-that-be’s fragile egos. To paraphrase Carly Simon, don't be so vain, it's not always about you.
But despite the repeated setbacks experienced in the couple of decades, I still believe it’s possible.
Or maybe I'm wrong.
Some trees do stand taller than others, others prettier with more leaves and longer branches but we mustn’t lose sight of the forest - which canopy provides much less shade when partitioned and scattered in smaller patches.
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