Category Archives: Benguet

War of the Day: Mandapat vs. Fongwan

Cartoon source: Hindu BusinessOnline

Word war. Word war. We love us some word war between top government officials in the region hehe. The issue appears to be whether public utility vans (FX?) should be banned in Kennon Road. Mandapat has banned them. Fongwan objected to the ban.

We honestly don’t know who is right here. But shouldn’t the ban be based on how heavy or how big/bulky a vehicle is? Not whether it is public or private?

If we remember correctly, and we may be wrong, trucks and public buses were first banned in Kennon mainly because they’re either too big or too heavy and their size/weight will affect the “safeness” of Kennon Road.

Now, if public utility vehicles are really just like private vans in terms of size and weight, then what’s the rationale for banning them that doesn’t apply to private vehicles? But as we said, we haven’t really delved into this issue to know who got it right in this debate. Maybe some of you can enlighten us.
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Cool Stuff

Here’s a story about a kailiyan from Sablan who is making money by selling used clothes (a.k.a. wagwag a.k.a ukay ukay) on e-bay. Maybe I should open an account with e-bay and start selling things through the internets, eh? Hmm, since I now have a paypal account, I just might do that. Pero ano kaya, mabenta? The world famous Sagada marijuana? Or sayote kaya?


‘Ukay’ fashion goes e-Bay

By Vincent Cabreza/Inquirer

BAGUIO CITY—“Where in this country can you sell a whole wardrobe reconstituted from ukay-ukay (secondhand bargain clothes) fabrics for under $400 (P16,000)?”

Check out the online trading over at eBay. For the last six years, a stylist from Sablan town in Benguet has used the Internet to market Baguio’s underground wagwag (a local term for ukay-ukay) and the Benguet weaving fabrics popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by businesswoman Narda Capuyan.

Hilson Busoy, 36, says women and gay men from the United States have found a taste for the Baguio-bred fashion, and have tried to outbid one another for such simple things as blouses put together from discarded Versace fabrics and lined with woven ikat.

Busoy grew up in a town that has yet to find its identity. Sablan is only an hour’s drive from the summer capital, but unlike other Baguio neighbors like the vegetable-trading town of La Trinidad or the mining town of Itogon, the community’s primary trade is banana.

“I am a businessman. I know what sells,” Busoy says. This real-world acumen is what drew him to eBay.
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