Peanut butter

NO, I did not have peanut butter sandwich for breakfast yesterday. I had tapang kabayo with the BFF over at Ketchup Community’s Rancho Norte. We were up early and the resto wasn’t even opened yet when we arrived. I suggested for us to go to John Hay instead but he stood his ground. He wanted his “yongkabarns” as he calls it. And so yesterday, I had my first taste of kabayo and to his relief, I actually liked it.

Our good friend from Smart, Arlyn, had peanut butter in her mind though when we got together for lunch. She just could not let go of the asphalt overlay along Session Road. “Parang peanut butter lang na pinahid sa tasty, ang nipis!”

The girl is always on point and she could not have described it better. I will reserve my judgment for the portion I saw and thanks to the traffic at the Session Road rotunda, I was able to get a glimpse of the multi-million road project.

I have my reservations regarding the outcome of the overlay. If what I saw is already the finished product then by God, I think my taxes have gone to waste again. The overlay is, indeed, thin and rough. It begs for the question, “So is this really what the instapave technology offers?”

But I am still hoping against hope that this ain’t the finished product and that I will see something akin to John Hay’s old roads “na makintab at makinis” as Kuya Sam described it to me the other day. This is me clinging to the belief that men are essentially good and that the people over at the Department of Public Works and Highways and those in local government do have the well-being of the citizens of Baguio in mind.

On the other hand, stakeholders of the annual Panagbenga, which opens today, have expressed their dismay and worries regarding the road project. They’ve aired concerns on whether it is safe for parade participants to walk barefoot along the city’s newly amped premier road.

But nice roads or bad roads, I believe that we should all have our children’s safety in mind.

Just this Tuesday a regional tourism conference was held here. And one of the issues raised was the lack of accommodations in the city. The additional rooms, they say, will help draw more tourists in.

On the other side of the spectrum is a call to preserve whatever little forest covers we have since tourists would still love to come here and feel the nippy weather.

I remember a former Department of Tourism secretary who earned the ire of our tatangs during a press conference after he blasted the city for having few accommodations, narrow roads and dwindling number of pine trees all in one breath. The tatangs walked out.

This has become a vicious cycle in the pursuit of increased tourism activities in the city and the region as a whole.

Something’s gotta give. We are a city built for 20,000 people and the population stands at a little over 300,000 already.

Progress comes at a cost. More rooms, sure, but where? More rooms, sure, but what about our land resources, water?

My love for traveling has opened my eyes to the benefits of tourism. But in all these places I’ve visited with an aggressive tourism drive and have succeeded, they have set their priorities early on and clearly.

Maybe it’s time we set ours, too. All these ideas tossed around but never coming to fruition is frustrating.

But I guess, since it’s already at hand, I have to resign myself to the influx of tourists and brace myself for heavy traffics on our peanut buttered roads and have a blast just the same. After all, I have great friends to share the festival with.