Meanwhile, the unexpectedly heavy expense involved in completing the road had been made the subject of severe criticism by the public press of Manila. Most of the critics were entirely honest, having no idea of the character of the country opened up, or of the importance of making it readily accessible.
Just at the time when the commission should have crowded its programme through to conclusion, it faltered. The only government construction work performed at the summer capital that year, in addition to what has been mentioned, was the erection of a small office building and of a barrack building for labourers, the enlarging of five government cottages, the addition of out-buildings, and the enlarging of a building which served as a combination sanatorium and hotel.
An Ifugao Family
The man is Guíned, the most influential of the Ifugao chiefs.
This policy of inaction was a mistaken one. It made the Benguet Road seem like the city avenue which ran into a street, the street into a lane, the lane into a cow path, the cow path into a squirrel track and the squirrel track up a tree, for while one could get to Baguio, there was very little there after one arrived. The accommodations at the sanatorium were strictly limited, and there was some apparent justification for the charge freely made that the Philippine Commission had voted to spend very large sums of money to open up a health resort from which only its members and its staff derived benefit.
The government had at the outset been obliged to construct its buildings on a piece of private land purchased from Mr. Otto Scheerer, as prior to the passage of the Public Land Act and its approval by the President and Congress, building on public land was impossible. Now, however, a town site had been surveyed, and plans for the future development of Baguio had been made by one of the world’s most competent experts. The time had arrived for action. Mr. Forbes, then secretary of commerce and police, argued vigorously for the carrying out of the original plan of the commission by the construction of adequate public buildings. To help the development of the place, he purchased two adjacent building lots and on the tract of land so secured built a handsome and expensive home, where he subsequently entertained not only his personal friends, but guests of the government, as well as various persons who had no other claim on him than the fact that they were officers or employees of the government who were in need of a change of climate and could ill afford to seek it at their own expense. Among his house guests were General Aguinaldo, Speaker Osmeña and many other Filipinos. It was Mr. Forbes’s idea, and mine as well, that members of the commission ought to set the example by building at Baguio. I followed his example to the extent of buying a lot and constructing on it a simple and inexpensive house, thus obtaining the first and only home that I have ever owned.
Ultimately Mr. Forbes formulated a plan for the construction of a group of government buildings, a mess hall and a large number of small and inexpensive cottages for rental to government officers and employees so that the executive offices of the government might be transferred to Baguio during the heated term and it might become the true summer capital of the Philippines. This plan was adopted in substance, and it was decided to transfer the bureaus of the government to Baguio for the coming hot season, so far as practicable.
Funds were appropriated for the carrying out of Mr. Forbes’s plan, but before the construction work had fairly begun there occurred, on October 17, 1909, a destructive typhoon. Eighteen inches of rain fell in nine hours, and twenty-six inches in twenty-four hours. The Bued River quickly rose fifty feet, carrying away trees and rocks which obstructed its course, and seriously injuring the road for miles. Four of the largest bridges were swept away and the work of constructing government buildings, which was just about to begin, was greatly retarded. It was not thought possible to transfer the bureaus of the government to Baguio for the coming hot season as planned. Indeed, there were not lacking those who insisted that no one would be able to get there. Mr. Haubé, the energetic and capable young engineer in charge, had the road open on the twentieth day of December, and the projected buildings ready for occupancy in February, a noteworthy and highly creditable achievement.
It was then thought that the storm which had done such serious damage to the road was of unprecedented violence, but there was worse to come. On July 14 and 15, 1911, a terrific typhoon swept across northern Luzón, bringing down one of the world’s record rainfalls. Between noon of the 14th and noon of the 15th, forty-five and ninety-nine hundredths inches of rain fell at Baguio. A mountain forming a part of the wall of the Bued cañon split from the top and the detached portion toppled over into the river, damming it to a depth of about a hundred and fifty feet at a time when it was carrying an enormous volume of water. When this dam burst, an avalanche of earth and rock, swept onward by a huge wave, rushed down the cañon, leaving complete destruction in its wake. Every bridge in its course was carried away, and the road was left in such condition that it would have cost $300,000 to open it for traffic. Then Providence, having apparently done its worst, relented and sent another typhoon which washed away most of the débris left by the first one, uncovering the road-bed and making it possible to reopen communication for $50,000.