Thursday, June 5, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
BAGUIO CITY – City officials call it the “reverse coding scheme,” yet another noble plan in their quest for cleaner air.
“We are opening discussions with Baguio’s 300,000 residents to opt for a four-day ‘carless day,’” said Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., who led some 3,000 City Hall officials and employees and personnel of national government agencies in launching the “Walk Baguio Walk” campaign at the Athletic Bowl last Monday.
The mayor, clad in sports shirt, jogging pants and shoes, walked the two-kilometer stretch from the Athletic Bowl to City Hall, along with city councilors Antonio Tabora and Isabelo Cosalan and other city executives.
As envisioned, city folk would use their cars for only one working day and walk to their offices and workplaces for the remaining four days.
This is part of the nationwide campaign for the environment, said Baguio Regreening Movement chairman and city councilor Erdolfo Balajadia.
“If we don’t start and move to free the air, we might wake up someday without it anymore,” he warned.
For three years now, Baguio’s number coding scheme has played a major role in “cleansing” the city’s central business district of pollutants from vehicles.
This, amid protest from public utility jeepneys which could not be exempted during holidays and City Hall-announced “coding lift” days like during the tourist peak season in summer.
When such a coding scheme is repealed, Bautista said Baguio could then begin discussing the “reverse coding” strategy.
Once this alternative scheme is in place, Bautista said parking areas for vehicles would be designated outside the business district. “From there, everyone will start walking,” he said.
“There is no other place in the Philippines, except Baguio, where walking is best,” he added.
Aside from the “Baguio Walk Baguio” campaign, city officials are also studying the possible closure of Session Road, the city’s main business thoroughfare, to vehicular traffic.
In 2001, a World Bank study tagged Baguio as the “most polluted city” among five cities in the country, based on samples of total suspended particles collected from Session Road.
City officials reacted negatively to the report, even castigating journalists but later thanking them for the “eye opener.”
Bautista said they are now studying how to close Session Road to vehicles and make it a promenade area even just on weekends.
Lately, a local environmental group suggested to bring Baguio back to circa 1950s by returning horses on the streets, instead of smoke-emitting vehicles.
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