THE BENGUET WAY

September 11, 2022 Opinion

ONE dreary day in the highlands year ago, the regular covering team for Benguet got stuck in the municipal building for a day. Call it a marathon coverage for an issue we wanted to be in the know coupled with the desire to stay indoors as rains fell harder by the hour, we found ourselves in one place for a day.
We made the most of our time though, getting information from various people and making stories in our heads which could last us a week.

We couldn’t get out for a lunch break because of the rain, all three of us journalists, didn’t have an umbrella, and no jackets to boot, call that hard luck for a hungry bunch and there was no municipal canteen to help either. When we thought we were going to starve, sandwiches came our way from the local
council who probably took pity on our deplorable selves. But the brightest surprise for all of us was the fee flowing coffee within the municipal building, a hot cup for our cold souls that day.

We hung around the mayor’s office and saw they served Soya Coffee which we helped ourselves to with more sandwiches to boot. At the municipal lobby, there is fresh barako coffee for everyone to partake right there at the main floor. There is no memo whatsoever to serve coffee for every tom dick and harry who
chooses to partake; the tradition just stuck said the municipal administrator.

It is here in La Trinidad that you would both in the municipal and Provincial Capitol, while waiting for your concern to be acted on, you can mull on your next move over a hot cup of coffee. Whoever started it or however it continued has no bearing now, but its effect and hominess is touching… you don’t find that in the ivory tower of the Baguio City Hall.