“OLD Bugnosen never dies, never dies, never dies/Old Bugnosen never dies, will not fade away!” the buddies in Barp (Blessed Association of Retired Persons Foundation Inc.) of former Baguio City Mayor Jaime Bugnosen can go on and on singing their hearts out for him to the tune of “Old soldiers never die, never die, never die/Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” And they will not be, as they are not, a fraction of an inch astray from the truth, for our Manong Jimmy is exactly that: undying, unforgettable, ever there.
That’s what I came to know of him the very first year I started rubbing elbows with him at the crowded corridors of old Baguio Tech, now worthy UB (University of Baguio), a veritable educational institution for upcoming generations of Cordilleran educators and technicians.
We were both younger then, 1966 to 1967, afresh in body and mind. Unlike now that he has been transfigured into a different state since that fatal (in our human language) day of May 10, 2017, 91 years counted from his natal day May 6, 1926. He, with mentors Federico Balanag and Isabelo Dacones, as dean, and the rest of them in the College of Commerce, and me in the College of Liberal Arts under Dean Atty. Wilfredo Wi and in the Graduate School Research Publication Office under Vice President Alfonso Garcia, Ed.D.
So, by academic departments, we were not that close, but we were much involved with the students in the Bibak (Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, Apayao, and Kalinga) organization, which was at its heydays then. Dean Pio Tadaoan of the College of Education and head adviser of Bibak and Mr. Jaime Bugnosen were at natural ethnic rapport with each other. Every time there was an affair or celebration, Bugnosen was unfailingly present.
Even in mere sectional parties, he made it a point to show up and give moral support to students, especially timid highlanders. If he was not invited, he invited himself to show how the Ibaloy tayaw was danced. He did not speak much but his active participation was speech enough so that, like another big man, Monroe Taclawan of the Kalingas, his manifest being concerned in community affairs was becoming an iconic mark. For that, he gained deserved respect and credibility. When time came, people conferred on him the mayorship of the City without much difficulty like they did to his brother Dr. Andres Bugnosen the governorship of Benguet Province.
When I left Baguio City for a while to help Dagupan Colleges, prior to MSAC, in its bid for a university status until it became University of Pangasinan, I could meet Jimmy only incidentally but always the same in friendliness and warmth. His infecting camaraderie helped to seal my decision of permanency in the Barp, which I joined actively in 2006 upon a casual invitation by its very president and an old friend in social organizations like the Pasap (Professionals and Students Association of the Philippines) that he, Balanag, had founded while we, including Jaime Bugnosen, were still in UB, and whose song he, the founder, enthusiastically reminded, was a composition of mine.
Jimmy’s resonant, albeit controlled, “Hi, Ben!” every time he appeared on stage during the monthly GA meetings were music to my ears. I took it as premonitions of inevitable to come that he twice expressed liking for the Barp Song of Life, particularly the final line “Till we hear God’s lyre and harp.”
To acknowledge his appreciative reaction that sounded more like a last wish, I resolved a conflict of schedules on my part in favor of joining the Barp administration and staff contingent, led by President Federico Balanag that proceeded to the Hillside Baguio residence of the Bugnosens for the customary prayer vigil for demised Barp members.
The Barp Song of Life containing the core values and the motto of the organization as elucidated by its founding president to the composer was appropriately sung first to our “transfigured” co-member lying in state, to the consolation of members of his household. Daughter Mrs. Aileen Bugnosen Bandonil was kept busy joining and documenting the unrepeatable goings-on. Siblings Mark and Michael, who just arrived from the States, she explained apologetically, were still asleep so she also had to play the piano in accompaniment in lieu of her “real pianist in the family” brother.
When urgent time came for me to proceed to another forum waiting at BSU (Benguet State University) LTB and indicated it, Dr. Bandonil graciously obliged while her pianist brother was still resting, “Okay, anyway you were taken conducting the Barp Song...”
I thought I could hear the “resonant voice” again as I was passing the door of that chapel-like room of a Bugnosen-Bandonil residential house and downward to the Sta. Escolastica portion of Hillside Rd., ca. 10:30 a.m. May 12 (Friday), 2017. I instinctively bit my lips and let go the brains to ponder of recent happenings:
“.../Abide by our great principles, /Our motto bright we’ll all uphold:/’Serve our brothers still as we had served/Without care for fame or gold.’/And that’s our life, our dream, our joy,/We sons and daughters true of BARP,/That’s the tune our hearty trumpets blare/Till we heart God’s lyre and harp.”
That’s it! The show must go on as go it will. Barp will go on intoning louder and louder its Song of Life. It may cross the paths of Yolandas but will overcome even the fiercest of them all. God is with us, we in Barp are serving even the least of our brethren, God’s children. Believe we undying, unforgettable, “ever-there” BARPer Jaime “Jimmy” Bugnosen!