Browse on                 Baguio History

In the late 16^th century, the Spaniards colonized the Philippines.  

Seven years after the Spaniards settled in Manila, a Spanish official, Juan de Salcedo, went to the North and into the mountains to search for gold. He then stumbled into a land of fertile valleys, virgin forests and ore-rich streams.
Gold was found and armies of soldiers, priests and fortune hunters came

. Numerous battles with fierce mountain tribes resulted in loss of life and livelihood. The Spaniards found the mountain people difficult to rule, thus they parcelled the com

mandancias into rancherias that they placed in the hands of the landed gentry.

In the summer of 1892, a young American zoological collector named Dean C.  Worcester was approached in the wilds of Mindoro Island, while at work, by Domingo Sanchez, a member of the Spanish Forestry Bureau. Sanchez, in great detail, told of a fabulous country in the Luzon northlands at an elevation of 5000 feet which had a perpetual temperate climate and was sometimes visited by frost.

Worcester, like all Americans suffering in the steamy lowlands of the archipelago, listened to the dream picture hopefully. Upon his return to Manila en route back to America, he browsed through Forestry archives and found enough about the truth of Sanchez’ shangri-la to whet his adventurous spirit.

Two years after Dewey’s guns silenced the Spaniards in Manila, Worcester reappeared as a member of the first Philippine Commission under the direction of Judge William Howard Taft.

In July 1900, Worcester and a party of curious Americans decided to explore the truthfulness of the Spaniard’s story and began the ascent to Baguio. In Washington, the then Secretary of War Ellihu Root was also watching hopefully. Almost every one in the party except the dogged and persistent Worcester was skeptical. Frost, pine trees, cool breezes...they no doubt grumbled under their shortening breaths as they toiled throu

gh the heat and dense jungle vegetation that gave the lie to Worcester’s hopes.

Until the globetrotter Frank G. Carpenter wrote, “all at once, within a space of 100 yards, the party left the tropics and found themselves in a region of pines carpeted by thick, short grass. At sunset, they looked down...on what is known as Trinidad Valley. That night, the most skeptical of the party, buried under blankets, acknowledged that Worcester’s faith in Domingo Sanchez had been j

ustified.”

When the Americans came into the Cordillera after Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States of America for $20,000,000 in the year 1898, they rejoiced in discovering these pine covered hills and the cool heights that were ideal for summer retreats from the smelting heat of the lowlands.

The wide low valley of Kafagway, a rancheria of 20 houses owned and headed by Ibaloi chieftain Mateo Cariño, was found in the year 1900. America then was just learning how to use the horseless buggy, while a village of Ibaloi Igorots, now known as the Benguets, were settled in their thatched huts in the area which is now Burnham Park.

Baguio was derived from the abundant moss-like green plants the indigenous inhabitants called Bigyiw or Bag-iw.

Also in the year 1900, the Americans established the first civil government in

Benguet. Kafagway which is now known as Baguio became the capital.

In a the report of the Philippine Commission of 1903, an America governor-general said, “By shifting a portion of those stationed in the lowlands to Baguio for a proper period, and the reverse, the term of duty of the of troops in the Philippines Islands could be much extended and consequent saving made in the cost of frequent transportation to and fro of troops from the United States to the islands.... moreover, the Government would not so frequently suffer the loss of service and efficiency of its employees on account of the effects of a tropical climate.”

Thus, on June 1, 1903, a resolution was passed by the American colonial government naming the town of Baguio the Summer Capital of the

Philippines. They built the Kennon Road and completed it in three years. It became the first road to connect Manila to the Mountain Province.

The city prospered in the years before World War II but was destroyed by the repeated bombings during liberation by the American air force who wanted to flush out the dreaded Japanese under Gen. Yamashita. From the ruins, Baguio rose into a commecial and industrial center of the Cordilleras.

On July 16, 1990, a great earthquake devastated the city, destroying many of its buildings and commercial establishments. A year later after the killer quake, Baguio has risen, a new city, proud of its rich heritage and legacy.

Today, Baguio City is a self-governing member of the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR). It is composed of the province of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao (where the famous Banaue Rice Terraces are located), Kalinga, Apayao, and Mountain Province.

-- by JACK & CHi, with excerpts from various
sources including a metal tablet at
the Igorot Steps, Upper Session Rd.,
Barrio Fiesta Restaurant

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