By MA. ISABEL ONGPIN
NORTHERN Luzon was under a rain umbrella last week due to a depression somewhere. So, the road from Banaue to Baguio, the famed Halsema, was a beautiful sight in the rain with waterfalls by the side every now and then, rice terraces on the opposite side but a tough drive despite being reasonably well laid out and paved.
Halsema was Mayor Eusebius J. Halsema, the last American mayor of Baguio City who retired before World War II, chose to remain in Baguio and was killed by an American bomb in a hospital in the city when it was carpet bombed by the US Air Force. He was a renowned engineer who built Cebu’s first reservoir for water, most of the Baguio roads, its electric plants and through his own initiative with government savings, began the Halsema road from Baguio to Bontoc.
Once on it one never forgets the Halsema. It stretches out in lonely splendor from Banaue to Bontoc, hardly bearing traffic except for road maintenance crews. Traffic appears when approaching the capital of the Mountain Province which is the bustling trade center of Bontoc. Then the Halsema winds on again till the Sagada junction. It is a classic mountain road with curves, ascents and descents hugging the mountains. We detoured to Sagada. It took about 45 minutes to an hour to ascend to it in the rain. The road is being prepared for cementing and under the rain quite muddy but passable. Known for its oranges and mountain rice, and a distinct Ifugao way of preserving meat, the etag, Sagada in the rain is a comforting sight. The white buildings of the Episcopalian establishment of school and church denoting voluntary detachment from the hurly burly and commendatory self-reliance in a mountain enclave. Little inns, simple restaurants, one main street, and a cottage weaving industry. Lots of non-Sagadans were moving about, many of them seeming to be long-time residents, probably Sagadans by now. It is a quiet spot in the Cordilleras where life has a measured rhythm of Nature and oneself contemplating theuniverse and finding satisfaction.
The Halsema from Sagada to Baguio is busy with vegetable trucks and buses, Cordillera on the move.There were two landslides that were obviously recent and being attended to in the midst of the comings and goings which meant one-way directions and crawling vehicles over mud and rocks. Unless slope protection is established, there will be more. Retaining stonewalls are abundant and denote the effort of years to keep the road open but it is not enough, therain just comes down in destructive abundance causing erosion and landslides. The DPWH has heavy equipment all over the Halsema on 24/7 duty but that is only to mitigate what happens when it rains. I heard that for thirty years there has been one contractor who has yet to come around to slope protection as in the Tipo Tipo Road in Subic. It would be a massive job.
Finally, after Buguiias and La Trinidad in the light of dusk descending on the Cordilleras we reached Baguio. It took us 10 hours with a gas fill up in Bontoc and lunch in Sagada. Manila and its affairs were far way but the Cordillera and its lifestyle was very near as we made ourselves comfortable for the night. And then we went to the Ilocos, and that will come next.
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