Post by seacid on Jun 11, 2008 13:28:01 GMT 8
Baguio WALKS to Work, Plans 6 CARLESS Days a Week
===============================================
By Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
Phil. Daily Inquirer, June 3, 2008, Page A1
BAGUIO CITY-AN ENERGY-SAVING campaign designed to eventually rid this
mountain resort city of cars and other motor vehicles for six days a week
began yesterday with a walk.
About 200 local officials, employees and residents walked to work as
their share in efforts to conserve energy, cut fuel consumption, and protect
the environment.
Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., Rep. Mauricio Domogan, Laoag Archbishop
Ernesto Salgado, Bishop Carlito Cenzon and other local government officials
walked to Burnham Park alongside government workers, teachers and their
children for a flag-raising ceremony that launched the "Walk Baguio Walk"
energy-saving campaign.
Some showed up wearing their offices' mascot costumes to promote their
agencies' programs. The Department of Health's antidengue campaign mascot, a
giant mosquito, caught everyone's eye at the ceremony held at Athletic Bowl.
Other participants showed up with placards that said: "I am sexy. I
walk to work."
They all walked back to their offices after the 10 a.m. ceremony, some
for 7 kilometers-in bracing weather-and others (who work at the city
library) for as short as 15 meters.
Bautista said the city government, having proven that a walk was good
for everyone's health, had more ambitious energy-saving plans
afoot-including a proposal for a vehicular number coding scheme that would
restrict motorists to only a day's use of major streets every week.
Closing Session Road The scheme would cut down the number of motorists
that use city roads every day. Up to 28,000 private vehicles, 4,000 public
utility jeepneys and 3,200 taxicabs pound city streets every day.
Bautista said the government still needed to convince every resident
that walking to work was good for one's health before selling them the idea
of using public transport instead of their own cars in their city travels.
With oil prices soaring higher than expected, Bautista has outlined a
new energy-saving strategy geared toward making everyone walk.
That calls for closing the main downtown street to vehicles and this
would start with turning Session Road into a pedestrian strip every weekend,
he said.
Electric tram The city is developing parking spaces where, the mayor
said, people who live in and outside the city proper can leave their cars
before walking to work, school or shopping mall.
Bautista said Philippine Ambassador to Spain Joseph Bernardo, who has
a home here, had told him of Spanish investors interested in developing an
electrically powered tramline for this city of roughly 300,000 people.
The tram would pass through Session Road, Camp John Hay, South Drive,
Botanical Garden and Teachers' Camp.
Robert John Sobrepe a, chair of Fil Estate and Camp John Hay
Development Corp., offered a similar project in the late 1990s.
Best reason for walking Vice Mayor Daniel Fari as said the city
government was reviving old energy-saving strategies adopted but never fully
implemented as part of restoration work after Baguio was devastated by the
July 1990 earthquake.
The measures called for managing traffic flows, curbing pollution and
adopting household conservation projects to help save energy.
Unlike other cities in the country striving to save on energy,
Baguio's cool climate is perhaps its residents' best reason to walk to work,
according to Samuel Pe afiel, Cordillera director of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources.
Pe afiel yesterday decked out the Athletic Bowl with Philippine flags
lined with instructions from Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, who chairs
this year's Independence Day celebrations.
Environmental pioneers Yesterday's ceremony cited the pioneers of the
20-year-old Baguio Regreening Movement, who promoted environmentalism even
before it became fashionable.
They included Salgado, former DENR Cordillera Director Oscar Hamada,
Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Horacio Ramos, Dr. Julie Cabato and
Ramon Dacawi.
Fari as said global warming and the recent disasters that had hit the
country had made the people realize "that there is something very wrong."
A Grade 5 student read out an essay to show Baguio "how to make it
right."
Sam's message Sam Liporada, an 11-year-old daughter of a city
government employee, said she was browsing through documents prepared by
Dacawi and was struck by the phrase, "God made Baguio for walking."
"My dad tells us stories about the history of Baguio and during one of
his storytelling sessions, he told us that Baguio was designed by [Chicago
architect] Daniel Burnham [in the early 1900s]," Liporada said.
"Burnham, he says, designed our city for 25,000 inhabitants. I am
guessing that even if Burnham never read the quote, he knew that indeed God
made Baguio for walking because my dad never mentioned anything about cars
[plying the city at the time]."
She said cars had polluted the city.
"Of course, we can't stop technology and we are now used to riding
instead of walking. And while cars made life easier, it has polluted the
city ... I hope that you adults could start showing us you care by leaving
your cars home," Liporada said.
"My family walks a lot ... Walking keeps my family not only healthier,
it also makes us closer," she said.
"Walk with your children ... Walk so we could all conserve fuel and
help lessen pollution. Walk so we could have a better environment and clean
fresh air. More importantly, if you walk, you'd be surprised that the people
around you are more important than your cars," she said.
###
===============================================
By Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
Phil. Daily Inquirer, June 3, 2008, Page A1
BAGUIO CITY-AN ENERGY-SAVING campaign designed to eventually rid this
mountain resort city of cars and other motor vehicles for six days a week
began yesterday with a walk.
About 200 local officials, employees and residents walked to work as
their share in efforts to conserve energy, cut fuel consumption, and protect
the environment.
Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., Rep. Mauricio Domogan, Laoag Archbishop
Ernesto Salgado, Bishop Carlito Cenzon and other local government officials
walked to Burnham Park alongside government workers, teachers and their
children for a flag-raising ceremony that launched the "Walk Baguio Walk"
energy-saving campaign.
Some showed up wearing their offices' mascot costumes to promote their
agencies' programs. The Department of Health's antidengue campaign mascot, a
giant mosquito, caught everyone's eye at the ceremony held at Athletic Bowl.
Other participants showed up with placards that said: "I am sexy. I
walk to work."
They all walked back to their offices after the 10 a.m. ceremony, some
for 7 kilometers-in bracing weather-and others (who work at the city
library) for as short as 15 meters.
Bautista said the city government, having proven that a walk was good
for everyone's health, had more ambitious energy-saving plans
afoot-including a proposal for a vehicular number coding scheme that would
restrict motorists to only a day's use of major streets every week.
Closing Session Road The scheme would cut down the number of motorists
that use city roads every day. Up to 28,000 private vehicles, 4,000 public
utility jeepneys and 3,200 taxicabs pound city streets every day.
Bautista said the government still needed to convince every resident
that walking to work was good for one's health before selling them the idea
of using public transport instead of their own cars in their city travels.
With oil prices soaring higher than expected, Bautista has outlined a
new energy-saving strategy geared toward making everyone walk.
That calls for closing the main downtown street to vehicles and this
would start with turning Session Road into a pedestrian strip every weekend,
he said.
Electric tram The city is developing parking spaces where, the mayor
said, people who live in and outside the city proper can leave their cars
before walking to work, school or shopping mall.
Bautista said Philippine Ambassador to Spain Joseph Bernardo, who has
a home here, had told him of Spanish investors interested in developing an
electrically powered tramline for this city of roughly 300,000 people.
The tram would pass through Session Road, Camp John Hay, South Drive,
Botanical Garden and Teachers' Camp.
Robert John Sobrepe a, chair of Fil Estate and Camp John Hay
Development Corp., offered a similar project in the late 1990s.
Best reason for walking Vice Mayor Daniel Fari as said the city
government was reviving old energy-saving strategies adopted but never fully
implemented as part of restoration work after Baguio was devastated by the
July 1990 earthquake.
The measures called for managing traffic flows, curbing pollution and
adopting household conservation projects to help save energy.
Unlike other cities in the country striving to save on energy,
Baguio's cool climate is perhaps its residents' best reason to walk to work,
according to Samuel Pe afiel, Cordillera director of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources.
Pe afiel yesterday decked out the Athletic Bowl with Philippine flags
lined with instructions from Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, who chairs
this year's Independence Day celebrations.
Environmental pioneers Yesterday's ceremony cited the pioneers of the
20-year-old Baguio Regreening Movement, who promoted environmentalism even
before it became fashionable.
They included Salgado, former DENR Cordillera Director Oscar Hamada,
Mines and Geosciences Bureau Director Horacio Ramos, Dr. Julie Cabato and
Ramon Dacawi.
Fari as said global warming and the recent disasters that had hit the
country had made the people realize "that there is something very wrong."
A Grade 5 student read out an essay to show Baguio "how to make it
right."
Sam's message Sam Liporada, an 11-year-old daughter of a city
government employee, said she was browsing through documents prepared by
Dacawi and was struck by the phrase, "God made Baguio for walking."
"My dad tells us stories about the history of Baguio and during one of
his storytelling sessions, he told us that Baguio was designed by [Chicago
architect] Daniel Burnham [in the early 1900s]," Liporada said.
"Burnham, he says, designed our city for 25,000 inhabitants. I am
guessing that even if Burnham never read the quote, he knew that indeed God
made Baguio for walking because my dad never mentioned anything about cars
[plying the city at the time]."
She said cars had polluted the city.
"Of course, we can't stop technology and we are now used to riding
instead of walking. And while cars made life easier, it has polluted the
city ... I hope that you adults could start showing us you care by leaving
your cars home," Liporada said.
"My family walks a lot ... Walking keeps my family not only healthier,
it also makes us closer," she said.
"Walk with your children ... Walk so we could all conserve fuel and
help lessen pollution. Walk so we could have a better environment and clean
fresh air. More importantly, if you walk, you'd be surprised that the people
around you are more important than your cars," she said.
###