SABBATICAL NOTES. 19 APRIL 2014. N3. SABADO DE GLORIA. Commerce, profit, the Lenten season, and the Cordilleras. NOW I AM beginning to understand many things in Baguio. As in any other city, those involved in the tourism industry look to seasons when they can recoup whatever losses they had during the lean months. To do that, hotels, pension houses, lodging homes, room rentiers, and transient home owners double their prices during the Panagbenga and Lent. Christmas is dull; only the President of the republic comes here during that time. These are the only two things that matter to this city. There are long, lean months, and the rainy season makes all the owners scramble for money to pay their bills, says my research assistant. I was once a tour guide when it was not yet professionalized and I know. What do you mean when the tour guiding was not yet professionalized? I asked. I did not know about these things. I did not know many things about Baguio. You can have your services contracted by tourists, and you do not have to get a license from the city hall. Much more, you are not involved with an organization that charges you so much for membership if you want to be an accredited tour guide. Thats him, the research assistant. How do you do that? You go by the bus terminals and offer your services there. So now, what happened? You get some kind of an accreditation by paying so much to an association. Right now, if the association catches you for providing assistance to tourists, you are fined. Heavily. I am ignorant. Tell me more about Baguio that I do not know. Right now, Baguio is filled with people. In two or three days when the tourists are gone, we are back to normal, this life of not having enough for this citys people. We live lives like rats, always on the lookout for what we can get from the excess. Or worse, from what is thrown away. Without the tourists, Baguio is nothing. What makes it tolerable is that tourists still come here. I look at this young man, the same young man who sells his daily labor at P200 for pulverizing stones by using the ampo for the dynamite. I sense his frustration. I sense his grief without a name. The poor will always be with us, but it should not be. BLACK SATURDAY/ Cordilleras
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 22:26:53 +0000
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