THE other week, this column left off with “Among other things...”
Yes indeed, much has changed since 1997. Of the many changes the city has seen since then, might we dare to say that some things have ventured from bad to worse. Top of mind is environmental degradation, some of it brought about by unbridled, unmonitored construction. To the point that the city building code and other regulatory ordinances have become a joke.
In my neighborhood alone, of three ongoing constructions, only one made good on their original answer to us of “Ongoing,” and secured a building permit. CBAO has not fulfilled their mandate, here, despite reports to their office of violations left and right.
Can you blame those of us who advocate a Baguio shutdown?
Yet, much has remained unchanged, too.
The other day, I inadvertently left an envelope of documents in a cab. To help retrieve it, I asked for assistance from 166, the police station, who assured me they would inform all their stations of the missing envelope and that if it was turned over to any of them, 166 would get back to me.
I was also advised to call the City Disaster Risk Mitigation and Management Council office to ask for their assistance. I did, and have done so before, for exactly the same thing, documents or such left in a cab. I think one particular time it was a whole set of final exams that needed grading that very day. They came through for that one, informing me that they could “text blast” all taxi units, one of which turned over the envelope of final exams to them.
This time around, however, it wasn’t that office that came through. It was Facebook.
I woke up yesterday to a message from my sister Annette, who had screenshot a post in the “Baguio Sumbungan Forums” FB page and sent the post to me. The post was from the driver of the cab I had left my envelope in, asking that the owner just call/text him to retrieve it.
Which is what I did. Thankfully, an inherent decency and honesty in the Baguio taxi drivers is still around, at least among a good number. The man could have chosen to not care and dispose of the envelope, and that would be that. But no, he chose to try and find the owner, and did so through FB. I have yet to find out if 166 or the CDRMMC had anything to do with his decision.
The driver’s name is Ruperto Flores, Jr., and it is with thanks that we give a shout out to him and the others like him, who take the time and trouble to do the right thing.
In Baguio, stories like these abound as always, more often than not with money and valuables involved. I would like to think that among the so much that has changed in this our little hometown, that we have decent taxi drivers is not one of them.