ACCESSING news, information and data made available by net-based portals such as Yahoo, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and others like social media for free are keeping netizens informed on a day-to-day and minute-by-minute basis with constant updates on what is happening around the globe.
As of this writing, I just uploaded a 37-second video about the rainy condition of Baguio shot from one area just to inform my contacts and their friends of the situation in the city. It took me just a snap of a finger to put together short video clips upon arriving at my office right after I have placed my umbrella at a dripping bin. Being the earliest to report and perhaps the first to use the net, the sending was fast and before I finished writing after an hour, my post generated almost 5k views and reached 6.2 people with over 80 shares.
Lately, I have been tagging destinations that I’ve visited adding a little information about the place just like keeping notes in a writing pad and adding Polaroid snapshots to it. Using my smartphone capable of recording stills and video, I have added over 300 reviews since this summer at Google Map and I received an eight spoked star badge as a local guide. My alliance with Google must have started when I chose its gmail services and shared images of Baguio’s sad state of the Post Office at its map site.
I also shared images of visitors who came to my media newseum which is also in Google Map and without me knowing, I automatically became a local guide when I earned points by the number of netizens who must have viewed and liked my posts. I also do not mind allowing my contents to go public because as a communicator, I believe in interconnectivity and it is also one reason why I built me own media newseum.
While attending the 110th Charter Day celebrations at the Baguio Convention Center, I added my old and new images of the semi-pyramid shaped center. I wrote a narrative in retrospect saying that there is a Tree Park at the vicinity of the Baguio Convention Center that was once used by Baguio artists when we conducted two international art festivals. I recalled that there was an Igorot ritual meant to appease the spirits and allow the festival to run smoothly and said cultural event was led by Ifugao elder and former Asin Barangay Captain Rey Lopes Nauyac with Kidlat Tahimik.
As I recalled, President Ferdinand Marcos in the mid-70s invited the top world chess players to have a championship in the Philippines and in anticipation to the Karpov-Korchnoi match, he asked GSIS to construct a world class convention center in Baguio. It started when I was in high school at BCHS and the chess event happened when I was already studying in Manila around 1978-79.
Also few years after the chess match, the phenomenal Nora Aunor of Bicol was at the height of her career as a singer and a concert was held at the convention center. Because of the deluge of fans wanting to see her, the convention center entrance was swarmed with people wanting to get inside. Concert goers pushed each other to a point where the glass wall cracked and pandemonium broke with about two killed aborting said concert.
I also remember a huge tapestry artwork by Alan Cosio hanging at the left side wall of the convention hall near the female comfort rooms. I knew it because Alan Cosio was the President of the Art Association of the Philippines when I became a member in 1980 while still a student of fine arts in Manila. I do not know much about the allowed treasure hunting at the convention center area and I just hope that its re-construction, retro-fitting or manicuring has significant improvement in terms of lighting, acoustics, electricity, tolerance to vibrations caused by performers and even air exhaust system to clear suspended air particulates.
Amidst the growing demand to restore old landmarks and historical sites in Baguio like the Baguio Post Office, the Baden Powell Hall and the Burnham Skating Rink, it seems that none of today’s netizens and millennial reporters are aware or would care to know about urban legends and allegations that beneath the PO and the skating gazebo were spots where retreating Japanese hid their loot often referred to as Yamashita Treasure. Well, I have also added new data and information about the Baguio Skating Rink at the Burnham Park’s link at the map showing its present condition.
With Mayor Benjamin Magalong’s day-to-day inspections around the city to check the environmental and historical significances of buildings and infrastructures, the Burnham Park’s Skating Rink was suggested by netizens as one place that the city’s top executive must also look into. When changes happen to such place, I’ll be more than willing to be there as a witness as I have been doing to major changes in Baguio, my city.