Brief History

Brief History

By PhD Ignacio L. Gallente, Punong Barangay

Before the squatters (illegal settlers) occupied the area, it used to be a pasture land of the Camdas Family. There were big pine trees sparsely scattered within the area and big rocks were all over the area except around the boundaries with Barangays Camdas Subdivision and Happy Homes-Old Lucban where there are more trees but no big rocks. The area was once called Carabao mountain due to its physical view and the fact that there many cows and carabaos before.

Sometimes in the middle of 1960's, under the administration of the Late President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and the Baguio City Mayor, the Late Luis L. Lardizabal, people satrted to construct their shanties at the lower portion of of hill on the Baguio side.

Due to uncontrollable influx of squatters, then President Ferdinand E. Marcos issued Presidential Proclamation No. 232 declaring many parts of Baguio City Quirino Hill including all areas squatted by all people of all walks of life as Miscellaneous and Town Site Application. Quirino Hill Barangays respectively. The hill was later subdivided as: East, Lower, Middle and West Quirino Hill Barangays respectively. The hill got its name Quirino in honor of the Late President Elpidio Quirino, the second Philippine President of the Third Republic and the first Ilocano to become Philippine President.

The first of barangay officials were appointed but in 1982, the first Barangay Election through secret balloting was condcuted but the officials worked pro-bono or honorarium. In 1989, Barangay Election was held with 7 (seven) kagawad and the one who garnered the highest votes automatically the Barangay Captain and the other 6 (six), kagawads. Just like the previous, they have no honoraria. But those elected in 1994 started receiving P600.00 for the Barangay Captain and P300.00 for the Kagawads. This gradually increased based on the IRA share for the Barangay.

Fiesta and Barangay Christmas Party held simultaneously: Held every 29th and 30th day of December of every year. But this year 2020, we painfully cancelled both activities except that we still managed to give prizes to winners of the best backyard garden program of the barangay.

Economy

People of Middle Quirino Hill generally belong to middle class with labour as main source of income.

Location

Middle Quirino Hill is a hill at the southern side of the Carabao Mountain. It is overlooking several barangays . It is bounded in the north by Barangay Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet, south by barangays Lower Quirino Hill and Camdas Subdivision, in the west by West Quirino Hill Barangay and Lower Quirino Hill and on the east by East Quirino Hill Barangay. The farthest road distance from the heart of the city is 4.0 kilometers more or less.

The barangay could be reached to and from outside through land transportation such as Public Utility Jeepney, Taxi and private car.

Land

The barangay is mountainous or elevated, and cool weather. The barangay is sub-division. Sub-divided into 341 lots (Block 4 extension included). The average size per lot is 245 square meters (more or less) with total land area of 96,183 square meters. However, due to the subdivisions of the original lots, it increased more than 400 lots.

Many of these lots are now titled through the regular process titling and through the free patent process.

All the public used lots are with land identification. The largest of which is the Quirino Hill Elementary School lot measuring 2,889 sq. meters, the View Deck- 300 sq. meters, the sattelite market, Barangay Hall and Senior Citizen's Hall- 250 sq. meters, the Middle Quirino Hill Health Center- 250 sq. meters, and the Covered Court , Day Care Center 1, Health Service Office and SK Office- 792 s. meters. Day Care 2- 100 sq. meters situated at tapao.

The spaces occupied Quirino Hill Elementary School, the Barangay Hall, Satellite Market and Senior Citizen's building were previously subdivided and given to private individuals by some of the Barangay prior to the Barangay Elections in 1989. But as soos as Ignacio Labawig Gallente was elected in 1989 as Barangay Captain, he initiated a massive petition for the return of said lots back to the barangay for its original purpose as it is identified as per subdivision for public use of barangay needs. The Resolution/Petition was given due course by the City Council in 1991. The 100 sq. meters lot where the Day Care 2 is located at Lot 99, Block 1 is a part of the 250 sq. meters lot applied for by Mrs. Eliza Rodriguez but was taken by barangay for the reason of her abandoning the lot in violation of the award condition. She was, however, given 140 sq. meters on order of the City Mayor Domogan on humanitarian reason.

A part of the recovered lots identified as Rock Formation measuring 1,200 sq. meters was swapped to the lot owned by the Easter School which is now part of the public road going up to Pinget barangay just after barangay Dizon Subdivision.

People

The population of barangay is more Cordilleran in origin. Majority of which are from the Municipality of Besao, Mountain Province. The rest are from the other Municipalities of Mountain Province, Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan and La Union. Only few are from other provinces.

The first barangay leader was the Late Johnny Menos (from the province of Benguet) was appointed in 1970 by then Mayor Luis L. Lardizabal. Mr. Menos was appointed Teniente for West Quirino Hill of which Middle Quirino Hill was part until in 1972. Then followed by the Late Toribio "Tongbaban" Compala (from Besao, Mountain Province) who was elected by community leaders via the viva voce process. Then in 1982, Mrs. Nena Go (from Pampanga) was elected through secret balloting. in 1989, Mr. Ignacio Genesis Labawig Gallente (father from Ilocos Sur and Abra and Mother is from Besao, Mountain Province) was elected number 1 kagawad, thus, automatically the Barangay Captain with 6 council memebers also known as Kagawads. in 1994, Ignancio Genesis Labawig Gallente was re-elected as Barangay Captain. in 1997, he was again re-elected and again in 2002. In 2007, Dr. Ignacio Genesis Labawig Gallente graduated as Barangay Captain by virtue of the prohibitions as provided by the R.A. 7160 also known as the Local Government Code of 1992. But after 3 years of rests, he was gain pushed and won back his previous position as Barangay Captain, and as usual, in a very convincing win.

As to religion, the largest group belongs to the Philippine Episcopal Church popularly known as Anglican followed by the Roman Catholic, the Charismatic group composed several Pentecostal Sects, then followed by the Seventh-Day Adventist, the Jehavah's Witnesses, Baptist, Iglesia Ni Cristo and others.

As to profession, there are many professional weavers, carpenters, businessmen and women and not to be outdone, many are working abroad. Majority of the households belong to average families and are owner of their home.

As in other parts of the country, majority of our residents are below 40 years of age. Almost 100 or 84 to be exact, are members of the Senior Citizens Association in which the oldest is more than 90 years aof age.

In spite of the diverse population in terms of ethnicity, the community is considered as one of most peaceful barangay in the City of Baguio, even as it is at the heart of the thickly populated Quirino Hill or Carabao Mountain. Its children are well cared considering the presence of the very active Barangay Nutrition Action Officer (BNAO), Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS), Barangay Health Worker (BHW) and two Day Care Workers as well as the very active members of the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC).

Our children are not denied of their education due to the presence of the complete Quirino Hill Elementary School located in our Barangay. And the presence of the 2 (two) Day Care Centers, one at the "tapaw" part of the barangay and one at the cmiddle part. Those residing at the the boundary with Camdas are enrolling their children at the Lucban Elementary School for Kinder and Elementary and at the Camdas Day Care Center for the Day Care Children.