BAGUIO CITY—Designed for 25,000 people in 1903 when the Philippine Commission declared it as the summer capital of the Philippines, Baguio is bursting at the seams, and is struggling to expand beyond its 49-sq km perimeter, sitting on a plateau that rises 1,400 meters, making it the coolest city in the country.

The Baguio Centennial Commission, which is celebrating Baguio’s centennial as a chartered city on Sept. 1, is tasked with formulating a city development beyond 2009. In the search of lebensraum (breathing space), the commission envisages expansion for Greater Baguio into surrounding municipalities of Baguio, including La Trinidad on the north, Itogon on the east, and Tuba on the south and west.

Baguio is eight degrees cooler on the average than any place in lowland Philippines, a unique natural endowment that makes it different from any city in the country and that has framed its development and city urban planning design since it was established in the early 1900s as a hill station serving as refuge for American colonial administrators from the oppressive heat of the lowlands.

The expansion of Baguio is one of two important projects of the centennial celebration. The other is the restoration of Baguio’s centennial landmarks, which are now diminishing and in danger of being lost to posterity because of inroads of urban blight and decay.

A hundred years after its founding, Baguio is home to 275,0000 people, a number that is expected to swell to 303,540 in 2010. This population growth has stretched the city’s infrastructure and municipal services to the limit, its international reputation as the “cleanest and greenest and best governed” city in the country.

Traffic congestion in downtown Baguio is a daily occurrence, evidenced by bumper-to-bumper traffic on Session Road. The congestion is magnified during the peak tourist season in the Holy Week and Christmas holidays. This traffic jam could be in Manila or in Tarlac City, and it is not what Baguio is about.

According to a city government report, more than 23,000 vehicles travel through Baguio’s roads daily, which were designed in 1909 for a population of no more than 25,000.

The centennial commission is spearheading a campaign to recover the pine scent of Baguio, for which it is renowned. The campaign seeks to plant a million trees to re-green Baguio. Virgilio Bautista, chair of the centennial commission, blames the deforestation to illegal logging, overpopulation and squatting.

Michael Parson, a member of the commission, says Baguio has more trees now than in the 1960s, but the deforestation is in areas outside the city, like those along Kennon Road.

The poor state of the remaining American colonial landmarks in Baguio caught the eye of US Ambassador Kristie Kenney during a three-week inspection tour in 2007, prompting the US Embassy to offer to restore them in time for the centennial.

I made a tour this month of the architectural heritage of the American colonial period. A few of them stood out but they are not in pristine condition, including Camp John Hay, Teachers’ Camp, Baguio Central School, City Hall (erected on the old site) and Camp Allen.

When the Philippine government took over the administration of military bases in the Philippines following the termination of their leases, the Base Conversion and Development Authority, inherited historical treasures. It preserved Camp John Hay but allowed many of its installations, including old houses which served as officers’ quarters, to deteriorate. Many were demolished. What is left today is the Bell House and the Amphitheater.

A thin book published by the University of the Philippines Baguio and edited by Delfin Tolentino Jr. describes Camp John Hay as the “most beautiful military post under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. The excellent roads are shaded by stately pine trees. The whole reservation is a park whose natural beauty has been enhanced by the art of the landscape gardener. The golf course is like a carpet of green velvet.”

The amphitheater built by Gen. Franklin Bell “is a wonderful example of natural beauty improved by the hand of man.” It still remains as the centerpiece of the camp.

The Bell House named after the general stands as a legacy of colonial architecture. The timber house is wrapped around by a veranda, through which the fresh air of Baguio flows into the state room and bedrooms.

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