By Aileen Refuerzo and Paul Rillorta

BAGUIO CITY, March 27 – Mayor Mauricio Domogan Wednesday brushed off claims that the city has been grabbing the credit for Benguet products being sold at the city’s markets
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“To me this is a non-issue but we want to clarify that we never claimed and we will never claim that Benguet products being sold in our markets are Baguio products,” the mayor intoned during his Ugnayang Panlungsod press briefing last Wednesday.

“We are not the ones putting the Baguio label. We are well aware that we are only the trading center for these products so we are not out to steal credits from other areas,” he said.

Domogan said that he himself has gone out of his way to explain to people from other places that the vegetables, strawberries and flowers being sold at the city’s markets do not come from the city but are actually produced from nearby Benguet towns.

The mayor has been observed to acknowledge the sources of these products in his talks during conventions, meetings, “lakbay-aral” sessions and especially during the Baguio Flower Festival functions to also help promote Benguet and other areas in keeping with the intent of the BLIST concept and other Cordillera provinces where other products sold in Baguio also come from.

“We never fail to credit them for these vegetables and flowers but if other people insist on calling these products as Baguio products, then it is not anymore the fault of the people of Baguio,” the mayor said.
He asked Benguet officials and residents to understand the city’s situation and refrain from accusing the city of credit-grabbing.

“If you want to remove Baguio labels, then it’s no problem with us. It is not our fault that they call it Baguio Beans and not Benguet Beans,” he stressed.

It has been common knowledge that some businessmen associate if not utterly name their products after the city because of its popularity.

A case in point is the tiger grass broom traders from Burgos, La Union who put Baguio labels on their products to gain marketing and promotion mileage.

Domogan also believes that businessmen who trade vegetables, flowers and fruits tend to use Baguio City as its point of origin to make it saleable and more alluring to customers.

“Consumers from the lowlands prefer to buy products which come from the city, that’s why brooms and hats have been etched with “Baguio City” in them,” he said.

“But we recognize fully well that Benguet and other provinces and towns in the Cordilleras provide products which the city needs and what the tourist wants,” he said.

Misconceptions of some sort do not come from us, it’s more of an advertising strategy employed by witty businessmen, he said.

“What’s important is, we work together so we can enjoy economic growth, not only in Baguio but the Cordillera as a whole, its time we learn to cooperate, unite and work as a team,” he stressed.*(PIO Baguio City//PIA CAR)