Kidlat Tahimik joins call vs ‘mallification’ of Baguio’s public market
BAGUIO CITY—National Artist Kidlat Tahimik on Monday urged a mall giant to reconsider its plan to build a market building in the summer capital, amid public outcry over Baguio’s continued “mallification.”
The call came during the ongoing review of SM Prime Holdings’ public-private partnership (PPP) proposal by the Baguio City Council.
The acclaimed filmmaker read an appeal addressed to Hans Sy, one of the children of the late tycoon Henry Sy, founder of SM Prime Holdings. The city council is expected to decide by January whether the PPP plan should proceed or be dropped.
Under the negotiated PPP arrangement, SM’s unsolicited 2020 proposal would require the developer to construct a 41,168-square-meter, four-story market controlled by the Baguio government, along with a smaller 14,839-sq-m, three-level retail store and an eight-level parking building on a 49,243-sq-m space administered by the mall.
Swiss challenge
Kidlat previously served as a citizen observer during the negotiation of the terms of reference for the prospective deal.
SM is also required to convert the city’s slaughterhouse compound into a temporary four-level, 7,322-sq-m market facility to house over 4,000 vendors while the new market is being built.
SM beat another unsolicited proposal from Robinsons Mall, but the project must undergo a mandatory Swiss challenge—allowing competitors to match or exceed SM’s offer.
The PPP project would replace the city’s iconic public market, which began as an open trade area for the Ibaloys in 1903. The original three-level stone market was built in 1917 by World War I German prisoners of war.
Despite fires in 1992, 2008, and 2023, the contemporary market has remained a low-density area serving as one of Baguio’s “commons”—shared community resources protected for public use.
The fires in 1960 and 1970 led to the development of the Marbay Souvenir Center, the Maharlika Livelihood Complex, and today’s Baguio Center Mall on the market’s burnt areas.
Kidlat noted that Sy could respect the market’s century-old legacy, citing a 2012 incident when he overruled engineers to spare 182 pine and other trees during the expansion of SM City Baguio at Luneta Hill.
Qualitative values
Citing a meeting with Sy on March 12, 2012, Kidlat said the executive prioritized “an unquantifiable benefit—the legacy of Henry Sy—over maximizing quantifiable profits” to spare the trees. The dispute led to a writ of kalikasan, lawsuits, and a 2019 Supreme Court ruling banning further tree cutting at Luneta Hill.
Kidlat urged Sy to again consider qualitative values over purely quantitative metrics, reiterating that the commons function of the market must not be sacrificed for profit.
“We don’t want our commons to become just another statistic in SM Prime’s profits report,” Kidlat said, highlighting the communal history of hunting grounds, burial grounds, watersheds, and markets in Baguio.
Kidlat also noted that Sy had previously spoken about honoring his father’s legacy as a higher priority than monetary gain, drawing parallels with Baguio citizens’ desire to preserve the market’s cultural and communal significance.
During Monday’s council session, Councilor Paolo Salvosa, chair of the committee on laws, pressed SM officials and city representatives on the inclusion of a noncompete clause to protect market vendors from potential competition.
SM’s team, led by SM Super Malls senior assistant vice president Mark Jenssen Pe and regional operations manager Rona Vida Correa, acknowledged their intention to include a supermarket but suggested sourcing local produce to minimize conflict.
An SM lawyer requested that any noncompete clause be limited to commodities rather than restricting the opening of a grocery store.
