Note 20 — The Spanish Friars, After 1898

At Báguio, in the mountain region of the Benguet district, at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, the Insular Government has established a health-resort for the recreation of the members of the Civil Commission. The air is pure, and the temperature so low (max. 78°, min. 46° Fahr.) that pine-forests exist in the neighbourhood, and potatoes (which are well known all over the Islands for many years past) are cultivated there. The distance from Manila to Báguio, in a straight line, would be about 130 miles. By this route—that is to say, by railway to Dagúpan, 120 miles, and then by the 55-mile road (opened in the spring of 1905)—the travelling distance is 175 miles. The new road runs through a country half uninhabited, and leads to (commercially) nowhere. The amount originally appropriated for the making of this 55-mile road was $75,000 gold (Philippine Commission Act No. 61). Up to January, 1905, $2,400,000 gold had been expended on its construction. It is curious to note that this sum includes $366,260 gold taken from the Congressional Relief Fund (vide p. 621). A further appropriation of $17,500 gold has been made for its improvement, with the prospect of large sums being yet needed for this undertaking, which is of no benefit whatever to the Filipinos. They need no sanatorium, and Europeans have lived in the Islands, up to 30 years, without one. The word Báguio in Tagálog signifies Hurricane.