City High foundation baffles historical commission

City High foundation baffles historical commission
by Pigeon Lobien on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 4:36pm
(In: Pigeon's Facebook page-premission granted to reproduce here)

As the city’s biggest high school is to celebrate its 92nd alumni homecoming, question is whether it was founded in 1919 or three years earlier.

Baguio City High School class of 1956 president Ed Tipton raised this question in a letter to Baguio City National High School principal Elma Donaal on the strength of a letter coming for the the National Historical Commission of the Phillipines which could not give an answer whether the school was founded in 1916 or its more popular date of 1919.

Tipton told Donaal that it be “for your information and guidance in preparation for the Diamond Jubilee of the Baguio City High School.”

“That is three years earlier than what we know,” said MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS Alumni Association president Dr. Tedler Depaynos during an alumni board meeting this week, where he also named a five man committee headed by former Department of Education - Cordillera director Remedios Taguba to look into the matter.

The Taguba commission will collate information as well as seek history experts to certify the date of the school’s foundation which has now more than 6,500 students at the main campus and close to 11,000 including the annexes, making it the biggest school in the country (Rizal National High School has more students than the BCNHS Main, but has no annexes).

In its conclusion, the NHCP said that that it “cannot certify October 24, 1919 as the founding date of the Baguio City National High School. Moreover, further research is required to obtain a definitve and more comprehensive history of said school, from its founding to present.”

The NHCP in its report said that two sources, Eugenio Plata and Laurnce Wilson, made mention that there was a Baguio Trade School founded in 1916 that eventually became the Mountain Province High School.

It said, that according to Wilson, “the first secondary school in Baguio was the normal school founded in 1916 later named as Mt. Province High School, whose normal subjects were later transferred to the Trinidad Agricultural High School in 1933.”

Other findings of the Commission state that a provincial high school was set up in Baguio in 1902; that a high school called Mountain and its principal was Richard Pattersonfrom 1924-1927, but this is different from the normal school, from the trade school and from the agricultural and farm schools; that the Baguio City Council in 1923passed a resolution for the establishment of a senior year for the MPHS; and, a 1926 Bureau of Education annual report “differentiates the general course high schools from the normal schools, whose list does not cite a normal school in Baguio.”

Tipton’s class was the first to be located at the 1.1 hectare campus which the school occupy now. It was segregated from the Burnham reservation in June 1953 under the term of mayor Gil Mallare after President Ramon Magsaysay approved Presidential Proclamation 401 leading to its segregation.

Construction started in September 1953 under mayor Benito Lopez and completed a year later under mayor Alfonso Tabora. The area was segregated at the request of then principal Gregorio Ariz at the behest of Parents Teachers Association president Rufino Bueno, father of the late mayor Ernesto wanting a permanent campus for the growing school.

Before that, the campus was located at several locations, first at the Teachers Camp, moved to the Government Center (Baguio Convention Center area), then beside the Casa Vallejo and back to Teachers Camp.

Expansion started in 1968 to cater to the growing number of students with the put up of annexes at the Baguio Central School (now the Pines City National High School), Aurora Hill, Bonifacio and Rizal Elementary Schools.

Pines will gain independence in 1980, while an annex of the said school, at Irisan will become the third national high school in the city in the 2000s.

Now BCNHS, provides special programs for the Sciences (started in 1984), the Arts as well as Sports, while also gaining recognition in academic and sports excellence in the national as well as international levels.

Meanwhile, the 92nd MPHS-BCHS-BCNHS grand alumni homecoming is set on May 6 and 7 at the BCNHS grounds and at the Hotel Supreme for the Gala Night. It will be hosted by class of 1986 with the class of 1961 as golden jubilarians. The alumni board is also set to award outstanding alumni, including a retired Philippine Navy commodore, among others. PML

(PHOTO, ABOVE) the city hi campus along gov. pack road which was segregated by president ramon magsaysay thru presidential proclamation 401 in 1953. mayor gil mallari sourced out P140,000 from the war fund, mayor benito lopez saw the start of construction and mayor alfonso tabora saw its completion in june 1954.