This mountain resort, which is famous for its fragrant pine trees, is counting the days towards its centennial celebration as a chartered city on Sept. 1, 2009. But for some sectors of society, the countdown must signal the long time clamor for community efforts in upholding the real sense of why this mountain resort is dubbed as the “City of Pines” and the country’s Summer Capital.

Today marks the 98th Charter Day of Baguio. For almost a century now, the city has been luring thousands to millions of domestic and foreign tourists to visit this cloud-kissed city up north. But by all indications, Baguio’s fragile environment is under siege brought about by rapid urbanization. More and more people are expressing deep concern about the city’s deteriorating environment.

The snowballing call for decisive actions to be led by the city government to reclaim Baguio’s sound environment, however, doesn’t seem that urgent. For one, the city is two years shy from marking its centenary minus a very important comprehensive environmental code, which is probably the key in protecting and preserving the environment.

Highly urbanized cities in the country have their own environmental code, which ensures a balance between economic growth and a sound ecology.
Report has it that experts on environmental concerns have been tapped to share their expertise and inputs on the planned drafting of an environmental code to address the growing demands of urbanization.

“With the passage of the environmental code, the city government and its partner agencies could address the problems on solid waste disposal, the issues on forest and watershed protection, including the disposal of toxic wastes from hospitals and funeral establishments,” said councilor Erdolfo Balajadia recently.
So far, the recent significant legislations approved in 2006 by the City Council which is in response to the growing concerns on environmental woes are the institutionalization of the annual “Tree Festival” in Baguio, which aims to propagate trees, including fruit bearing ones, in any possible idle public and private land in the city.

It was also on the same year that the legislative and executive branches put their acts together when both branches pushed for the rehabilitation of the city’s open dump site in Irisan. But the problem did not stop there, as the city still has no definite parcel of land for its controlled dump site facility and officials admitted that there is no space in Baguio for such project, and they have to look outside the city.

It has been noted, however, that the growing public concern on environmental woes is not given much attention in terms of laws passed by the City Council according to areas of concern over the past five years based on documents obtained at the Research Division of City Hall.

From 2002 to 2006, the City Council passed a combined 47 ordinances and resolutions that dealt on environmental protection, ecology, health, and sanitation. As expected, commendations dominated the local laws passed on the same period. It was in 2003 that the council posted a “poor performance” when only three laws were passed addressing the four concerns stated above.

It was in 2006 that the City Council recorded a “good performance” in terms of addressing environmental and health concerns with 20 legislations approved, a proof that city officials were feeling the pressure that sincere government interventions are needed on environment protection concerns.

But then again, the non-enactment of a comprehensive environmental code of Baguio doesn’t seem that urgent even as experts and advocates have warned that any damage to the environment is theoretically irreversible and no amount of money can bring back its natural grandeur.

Simply put, no amount of money can ever restore the Balili River, the main tributary in Baguio, which has been reported to now be “biologically dead.” Gone are the days when “Baguio boys” went for a dip and caught aquatic resources because the least that the city can do to preserve the river for the next generation is by cleaning it of tons of indiscriminately disposed garbage.

It’s no surprise that the unabated migration in Baguio is being pointed at as one of the major causes of the city’s environmental decay. This, as the city designed for 25,000 persons now has a modern-day population of more than 300,000.

The regional Department of Environment and Natural Resources, in fairness, is not ringing the sound of alarm but it is sending a clear message that something has to be done when it reported that only 20 percent of Baguio’s close to 6,000 hectares forms part of the remaining patches of forests in the city.
In fact, even Busol watershed, the city’s most critical forest and biggest watershed, is not spared from illegal activities from squatting to tree cutting, another indication that Baguio is unmatched in its growing number of migrants.

A much recent study by the regional Population Commission, in coordination with the United Nations Population Fund, revealed that the number of people a square kilometer in Baguio is 4,389, or 17 times higher than the national average. The standard number of people for an urban area is 1,000 residents per sq. Km.

Some of the more than 50 cases of landslides reported in Baguio during Typhoon Florita in 2006 alone were attributed to the lack of trees within the site of landslides, as more and more patches of forest covers are now sites of commercial and residential structures.

In the wake of Typhoon Florita, Balajadia, chair of the committee on environment, called for an investigation on the real causes of landslides and at the same time called for an inventory of houses built on identified geo-hazard areas in Baguio. There has been no report on the causes of landslides up to now.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) released a report in June 2007, which technically confirmed reports that Baguio is susceptible to landslides because it is being hit constantly by heavy rainfall. The same report said that Baguio holds a world record for most precipitation in a 24-hour period at 46 inches on July 14 to 15, 1991.

One significant point raised in the MIT report, which the city government particularly the City Council might consider in line with its bid to preserve the environment, more importantly the lives of residents, is the importance of using the landslide risk rating system, which is not yet available in the country.
The former and current city officials share the same concern regarding the long planned “relocation” of residents dwelling within geo-hazard areas but then again, the plan would remain in the drawing board because the city has not officially identified a “safe” relocation site.

In fact, the scarcity of lands for human settlement prompted informal settlers to intrude in watersheds, government reservations, and titled properties with more or less 7,000 families in Baguio identified to have no decent shelters.

The cutting of trees to pave way for commercial and residential houses, and growing number of private and mass transportation vehicles also greatly contributed to the declining ambient air quality in Baguio, especially within the central business district.

In wake of a World Bank study stating that Baguio is one of the most polluted cities worldwide, city officials reacted pro actively by adopting several policies from number coding scheme to cracking down on vehicles with illegal permits.

The implementation of local laws geared towards clean air since 2005 yielded positive results based on the monitoring report of the Environment Management Bureau of the DENR, which stated that the pollution level within the CBD has a TSP level of 230 micro grams per normal cubic meter (ug/m3).
TSP, which stands for total suspended particulates, refers to solid matters or liquid droplets from smoke, dust, fuel ash, or condensing vapors that can be suspended in the air.

The city’s ambient air quality would further improve if the city, in close coordination with concerned agencies and clean air advocates, would come out with a holistic or effective approach in monitoring the more or less 36,000 vehicles that come in and out of Baguio daily to ensure that air pollutants must pay.
Bad air quality has its price, as the Department of Health reported that cars using diesel fuel emits toxic substances, which if inhaled for a prolonged period of time at high concentration could be detrimental to health.

“Diesel emissions affect all people but children are more vulnerable… New studies show that air pollution not only exacerbates children’s asthma but may actually cause asthma in otherwise healthy children,” reads the recent DOH report transmitted to the City Council.

In the United States, studies show that fine particles from diesel shortens the lives of nearly 21,000 people each year in America, and causes almost 3,000 early deaths due to lung cancer. The studies also showed that US government health expenditure in 2001 was pegged at US$139 billion due to premature deaths and health damages caused by diesel fine particles.

Baguio has been the pilot project area of the World Bank funded Clean Cities Program, the program that aims to cut public spending on health and to push public awareness on alternative fuels. A WB report noted that health costs due to exposure to particulate matters in Davao, Metro Manila, Cebu, and Baguio reached about $430 million in 2002.

It was in 1999 up to 2002 when Baguio posted its worse pollution levels from 341 ug/m3 during the first quarter of 1999 to 393 ug/m3 during the second quarter of 2002.

Reports that Baguio’s rapid urbanization took its toll did not seem to alarm its many residents and even some city officials. Dozens of infrastructures are being allowed with no respect for the aesthetics and the environment of the city as claimed by advocates who launched an online petition that seeks to put an end to the further conversion of this mountain resort into an urban concrete jungle.

The online petition addressed to city officials launched by residents of Baguio scattered over the seven continents expressed deep concern that time will come when Baguio would no longer be the “City of Pines” and might no longer be environmentally and aesthetically unique from other cities in the country.

“We believe that decisions made in the past with no respect for the aesthetics and the environment of Baguio to put up concrete structures such as malls, overpasses and flyovers have worsened Baguio City’s condition and have drastically changed its character…as a ‘City of Pines’,” reads the online petition.

For the advocates, declaring Baguio a “special heritage zone” will mitigate the further degradation of its environment and unique landscape for next generations to enjoy. For one, the advocates share the same view that the remaining pine trees should be preserved to be the city’s greatest landmarks.

Exactly 730 days from today, Baguio will be celebrating its centenary with the theme “Fostering a Culture of Caring.” If residents and officials really want to foster a culture of caring, then it’s time that they put their acts together in caring for the city’s fragile environment which the Baguio ancestors, who once lived under the shadows of this mountain resort, did for this generation to enjoy.