Aquino quietly winds up holiday

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—President Aquino on Sunday left the summer capital as quietly as he had arrived for a three-day holiday break.

The President kept to himself and was only seen when he jogged at the Mansion grounds with his security escorts. Local officials would not say who among his Cabinet, friends and relatives had joined Aquino here.

During his stay, Aquino was unable to spend time with city officials. An initial plan for the President to lead Rizal Day rites at Burnham Park did not push through.

But Aquino left an unusually robust season for Baguio tourism, which brought its share of problems, however.

During a previous visit, the President criticized Baguio’s overcrowding and dwindling tree cover.

During his more recent stay here, traffic jams still plagued the major streets that led to the presidential mansion, Wright Park, Mines View Park, Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay.

December drew as many as 800,000 visitors, counting motorists who drove up for a few hours to take in the nippy weather, said Benedicto Alhambra, city tourism officer.

The city experienced temperatures as low as 12.5 degrees Celsius, which is considered normal for Baguio residents who used to enjoy 10 degrees Celsius weather in previous years.

Alhambra said much of the traffic jams could be attributed to the increase in tourists who brought their vehicles and who trooped to frequented spots like Mines View Park and the Lourdes Grotto, as well as the strawberry farms in neighboring La Trinidad town in Benguet province.

During Aquino’s three-day stay, hotels and inns were fully booked, Alhambra said.

“I had invited the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for a series of Baguio concerts [at the Baguio Convention Center on Saturday and Burnham Park on Sunday]. But their original hotel was overbooked so I had to scout for smaller hotels to accommodate them,” Alhambra said.

Malacañang also sent a team to clean up Burnham Park because of the President’s initial plan to hold the annual Rizal Day rites here.

But during rehearsals on Sunday morning, Baguio officials were told Aquino was leaving and would not be able to lead the rites.

Local officials were prepared to discuss how the local government intend to address its problems, a staff member in the mayor’s office said.

For example, days before Christmas week, city engineers and tourism officials inspected and identified roads leading to popular tourist destinations in Baguio, as they map out a new set of tourism roads for Baguio.

Their inspection would have been reported out to a task force created by Aquino to plan improvements in the key tourism-drawing communities, including Baguio and Boracay in Aklan.

Baguio’s latest projects were designed to benefit an economic and resource sharing cooperative called BLISTT, which stands for Baguio and its neighboring Benguet towns of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay.

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