102nd Baguio Day Celebration (September 1, 2011)

Mayor Mauricio Domogan announced that the planned grand celebrations for the city’s 102nd charter anniversary on Thursday, September 1 has been cancelled following the tragic incident that the city experienced due to the onslaught of typhoon Mina over the weekend. Instead, it will be celebrated in a simple ceremony and a clean up drive.

 

Domogan said there will be no grand parade but a simple program will push through at the Baguio Convention Center at 8:00 a.m. to be led by city officials, city government employees, barangay officials, regional line agencies, students, and the private sector.

 

In place of World Boxing Champion and Saranggani Congressman Manny Pacquioa who was the invited guest of honor and speaker, the Mayor and Congressman Bernardo Vergara will be delivering the messages during the program.

 

The mayor also encouraged everyone to join in the clean up drive around the city after the program together with barangay officials.

 

The city of Baguio was one of the hardest hit during the typhoon over the weekend. The Office of Civil Defense – Cordillera reported six died in Baguio City. Five perished when the retaining wall of the Irisan dumpsite collapsed Saturday during the height of typhoon Mina.

 

OCD regional director Olive Luces identified the dead as siblings – Revuller, Apolinario, and Frando Flores and Jeffonie and Noemi Cael - who died when tons of garbage covered their houses. The other victim, Floro Soliven, was buried in a landslide in a pocket mining site in barangay Kias.

 

Rescuers are still recovering the missing identified as Antonia Tacio, who is suspected to have been buried in the garbage landslide incident at the Irisan dumpsite.

 

The city government with the Department of Public Works and Highways and other private sectors are conducting clearing operations at the “trash slide” site along Asin, Tuba in Benguet.

 

More than a hundred families also were evacuated from the Lower Rock Quarry due to the flooding of the City Camp lagoon during the height of typhoon Mina.

 

The city government decided to forego with the celebrations to give attention to the victims and the typhoon aftermath, Domogan stressed.(JDP/RC- PIA CAR)