WHEN I say BEA, I mean really that and not BIYA, for like their spellings, they are phonically almost the same but basically different.
BEA is the acronym for Baguio Elderly Assembly while BIYA is the nickname for Pag-Asa Goldimeir Biya, my niece who represented Baguio City in a national primetime TV show contest. A full-bodied beauty and well appreciated for her ratings in the talent and, particularly, the question-and-answer portions of the contest, she worthily stood as representative of her constituent territory and citizenry that constitute a challenging melting pot of tribals and mainstream peoples.
Like her former classmates in Masscom at the Saint Louis University, we are much proud of you, Biya. Congratulations! We know the other portions of the game were beyond your control. For us, you were a tops though it was not your luck yet. Remember, you had said you did not believe in “suerte” but in one’s efforts?
As to BEA, this is, or was?, an assembly of assemblies of elderly citizens in the City of Baguio, the Summer Capital of the Philippines.
BEA was a remedial measure engineered by multi-termed Congressman Engr. “Mr. Baguio Tourism” Bernardo Vergara. Pestered by conflict of schedules, brought by insistent invitations by various senior citizens organizations like BARP, PGREA, FBASECA, aside from barangay LGUs, Vergara suggested in 2003 to form among themselves one assembly. This suggestion caught fire and the resulting mother assembly unanimously got the name Baguio Elderly Assembly. The City of Baguio was added to the three mentioned above, to include all the some 130 city barangays and the City government itself. With one time City Councilor Narciso “Nars” Padilla chosen Coordinator at the helm, BEA was fun while it lasted. In fact, when I entered BARP, I was inspired to compose the BEA marching song during a parade down Session Road. The first stanza started with the piece “Adtoy kami, adtoy kami, we Baguio elderly/Gapu’t pintas daytoy ili napigsa’t bagbagi/Nangruna daytoy climana a di maisuksukat,/ Ragsakentay ti magmagna manipud bigbigat.”
Ms. Delia Salabao, head of the BARP Physical Fitness Program centered at the Burnham Park grounds refused to look older since then. Later, BEA adopted the beautification of the Rose Garden for the Elderly overlooked by the Rizal Monument and Burnham bust. The late Vice Mayor Fariñas once prominently joined in the hearty singing of the “Rose Garden Pledge” composed by yours truly but really encouraged by BARP President Federico A. Balanag and BEA Chairman “Nars” Padilla. Here’s the first stanza: “For this Rose Garden that You gave to our care/We raise our hands, Lord, in pledge to do our share/This is our covenant, Our God, it’s only fair/That we your stewards here will keep it e’er clean the air”… The first singing thereof was preceded by a reading from the Book of Genesis which edified now BSU retiree Dr. Carlota Lubrica and prompted the author-conductor to insert the stanza “A taste of Eden lit by the Eastern sky/This grove of Baguio swept by breeze from on high/This is our legacy: to keep it all aglow/With roses beautiful created long ago.”
It was fun, indeed, but now what has happened? There seems to be no more BEA movement, no more sound of steps to be heard. When Prof. Balanag was asked about it, he could not hide signs of disappointments. “BARP had to resign in 2012,” he said, “because it was becoming apparent that its incidental expenses were the obligation of BARP alone. Alarming,” he concluded.
There it was. I got the message. As usual, financial insincerity or trying to get it over the other in the settlement of financial obligation came. Filipino culture? The audience was reminded of this at the UCCP Church when a pastor speaker gave his eulogy at the wake of the late Atty. Damaso Bangaoet, Jr. last Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 8, 2014. An army retiree, the speaker recalled an anecdote of the “crab mentality among Filipinos”. They were at a bank, he said, hungry and tired from a mission. There being plenty of crabs at the riparian area, they brought in a big basket to fill. When a foreigner American soldier saw that the basket was getting half-filled and still uncovered, he shouted at the Filipino army man throwing in some more, “Hey, buddy, cover the basket, the crabs might climb and get out!” The shrewed answer came with certainty, “No worry, those crabs are our Filipino brothers.”
Seems true this crab mentality Filipinos, Cordillerans not exempted. In fact, there is no direct translation of the English word “Congratulation” in any Cordillera dialect that I know of. I wish cultural writer Henry Aliten and the Isnags of Apayao can contradict what I am saying. I wish much more so that this is not the case in BEA. It is a worthwhile and worthy project, for the young and old of Baguio, socially and economically. We can overcome our defects. As Engr. Susan Angaga’s Cooperative Union of Baguio City intones in full confidence, “Never mind the darkling clouds/Brighter are the rays of hope.” This attitude is more Filipino. We can even laugh at our own weaknesses to gain greater strength.