Itogon, Benguet, viewed from Ambuklao Road. Zoom for details.
Heavily silted Agno River tributary above Ambuklao Dam.
One early morning in December 2011, as the sun rose over La Trinidad, twin rainbows appeared on the horizon. Even if the rainbows were vague, they should inspire us to appreciate the wondes of nature, VIVIDLY.
Rice terraces along the Chico River. Bontoc, Mountain Province September 2010
Vegetable terraces. Mountain Trail. Atok, Benguet. April 2010
The road to Kalinga, viewed from Tocucan, Bontoc.
Annabel, Sadanga along the Chico River. april 2008
Upper Chico River. Border of Bontoc and Sadanga, Mountain Province
Bird’s eye view, Bontoc Mountain Province
Bugnay, Tinglayan, Kalinga. April 2010. Home village of Macliing Dulag, Chico River Dam martyr.
Clouds over Ambiong, La Trinidad, Benguet.
Last year, in the aftermath of Typhoon Pepeng, we all learned of the death of Rex Mang-oy, former fireman, and three firemen in the active service, Siegfred Ngoloban, his cousin Richard Balusdan, and Benedict Tumayan, while they were engaged in rescue operations in La Trinidad.
They died after rescuing a three-year-old child and bringing the child to the hospital. (Both parents and the siblings of the child all perished when their house was hit by a landslide in Buyagan, La Trinidad.)
Perhaps euphoric after the successful rescue, they went to Little Kibungan in Puguis to help in the search and rescue operations there although it was already dark.
They died there.
Why they continued rescue operations even in darkness, when there was still earth movement in the landslide area, was perhaps because of a sincere effort to save more lives. It was perhaps driven by empathy and sympathy for the victims of the landslide, both the living and the dead. As the editorial of the Zigzag said then, “Being firemen, we expect them to have had the necessary training to have exercised all caution. For their sake, we presume that their deaths were unavoidable….”
At the wake of Richard Balusdan, an unnamed search-and-rescue volunteer recalled that Richard told him to go home and look after his home and family. It was after he left that the earth moved again, taking the lives of the four. This unnamed volunteer felt that he was saved by Richard’s gesture, and was unreservedly grateful.
Such stories are the stuff of legends. The successful rescue of the child was sure to have been told and retold in the wake of Siegfred, Rex, Richard and Benedict, as well as other stories of their heroism. Yet despite such emotional and praiseful recounting, the grief over their deaths is not diminished. Rather, it magnifies the loss, for we need such heroism at this age and time when we are surrounded by villains.
Villains were not lacking in the Pepeng ordeal.
While the good side of humanity, exemplified by heroism, voluntarism and charity is evident in our response to the twin disasters of Pepeng and Ondoy last year, and in this year’s recent super typhoon Juan, these disasters have unfortunately also brought forth the dark side of humanity.
In the houses abandoned last year because of the landslides, there was some looting, an occurrence not unexpected, for thieves are known to be busy during typhoons. But what rubs salt to the wound is that the victims this time were already victims of a bigger tragedy, for they have already lost family and property to nature’s wrath, again to be victimized by thieves.
In the rehabilitation site in Puguis, one woman was caught stealing from the donation box. Reports say that the woman was mentally ill. She probably was, for whoever does what she planned to do must really be sick.
But these forms of thievery are petty compared to the stark opportunism of supposed businessmen. When Baguio was still isolated because of landslides, vegetables were to be had for the price of gold. There was a time when the wholesale price for a kilo of potatoes and beans, for example, reached as much as P80. The price was perhaps driven by the law of supply and demand, for there was limited supply. It was good for the farmer who could deliver his patatas to Baguio then, for the middlemen and resellers drove the price up as they competed for his produce. Tinmama isuna.
The middlemen and resellers would add to the price even more, and consumers would then have to shell out P150 for a kilo of potatoes. The price of beans reached as much as P200 in Baguio. Sayote was selling in Manila for as much as P150 per kilo.
This opportunism is as despicable as the thievery of abandoned homes, if not more so.
On a lesser scale, but equally despicable, there were grocery and sari-sari stores that raised the prices of canned goods, anticipating shortage because of Baguio’s isolation, and also because canned goods were being purchased in bulk as they were being donated to victims of the disaster.
After every calamity in the Philippines, humungous amounts of rehabilitation funds are provided to the affected areas. These funds are the cause of other disasters in the making. In the wake of Pepeng and this year’s Juan, government estimates damage in the region to infrastructure, crops and private property in hundreds of millions of pesos. Last year, the Office of Civil Defense even came out with a report that the damage estimates were bloated by politicians in the local government units with the intention of getting more rehab funds.
The rehabilitation funds were eventually released, and for sure have provided opportunities for graft. It is a certainty that some people have gotten richer out of last year’s tragedy, and the grafters and other opportunists are on the top of the list. This year’s typhoons will provide the same opportunity for this despicable breed of humanity.
We do not wish them well. Karmic justice will overtake them soon enough. If they do not believe in karma, their Maker may perhaps be merciful as He pronounces judgment, though He is as vengeful as He is merciful. ****
By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
April 23,2006
Note: Relative to “Harrowing experience” the following essay appeared in the Zigzag Weekly of April 23,2006. Just in case you wonder how come the foregoing column could be written at all despite the contents of the second column, I personally do not know what exactly happened. All I was told by an in-law was that she had received a phone call on April 25,2006 from a BSU College of Nursing faculty member friend telling her to inform us to make Aglaia report to the school because they have decided to lower the cutoff to 97 as some of those who qualified were not reporting. The caller took care to say that the development had nothing to do with the adverse publicity. I was and I still am tempted to suspect otherwise though. Whatever the truth, I can say now that the belated decision of the college to accommodate Aglaia as well as my decision to castigate the university publicly have been vindicated by her passing the board exams.
The Benguet State University (BSU) owes my family especially my younger daughter Aglaia an apology. Due to what now looks like a lack of coordination and meeting of minds between the College of Nursing and the Registrar’s Office, we have been dealt a most expensive and cruel joke. I assume it will take sometime before we can fully put the episode behind us.
Desiring to enroll in the highly regarded nursing department of the BSU, Aglaia took the admission test of the university sometime in March. Early this month, we learned that she garnered a percentile of 97.80 which, according to the Registrar’s Office, meant she is a candidate for admission in the College of Nursing. The person on the other end of the line told me that she should report to the school before April 19 for evaluation. When I asked what she should bring, the person said just her Form 138.
That information from the Registrar’s Office made the family’s hope that Aglaia would qualify soar because she has good grades. In fact, she ranked fourth in a batch of 89. Barring any other means of testing her worthiness to enter the BSU College of Nursing, I told myself that my daughter is practically enrolled in one of the best nursing colleges in the region.
Since Aglaia does not still know her way around in the city, I took a leave from my work for a day and accompanied her to the BSU on April 11. While waiting for the strike of 8 AM, we went through the list of qualifiers for the other courses and found that her name does not appear in the two alternative courses. I figured that must be because she is listed in Nursing. The man at the counter told us to proceed to the Office of the Dean of the College of Nursing where the lady who attended to us looked at the card of Aglaia and then gave us a small checklist of the enrolment requirements which xerox copies she said we should submit before the day ended. Since the Registrar employee I talked to on the phone did not say anything about birth certificates, we did not have it so I texted my elder daughter Pia to email it which she did. When we finally submitted the requirements, the lady said that Aglaia should return on the April 19 when the final list will be made available so that whether she makes it or not, she will be told what to do next.
I must mention that during the visit to BSU, I saw a notice for the second admission test for the College of Nursing scheduled on April 12.
As April 19 approached, our excitement heightened. Little did we know that it was going to be a very sad day for the family. It was good we did not follow the instruction of the lady at the Office of the Dean to report on that day because the relative we sent to look at the list texted that Aglaia’s name was not in it and that the cutoff was 98. We were crushed and mad.
I called the Office of the Dean and a lady who does not want to be identified told me the following among others: the college admits 150 Nursing freshmen a year and those who got 98 up were already 160 but they have to accommodate them all otherwise those who got 98 who will be bumped off will cry foul; that it was not the College of Nursing which set 95 as the cutoff for the college but the Registrar’s Office; that they have been advising the Registrar’s Office to send Nursing hopefuls to the college for prequalification before they take the exams so that when they pass the exam, there will be no need for further evaluation which would simplify things; that just like us, they too are victims of the fiasco. I was unable to follow her answer as to why they still have to conduct another exam when there were already enough passers in the first exams. I heard her clearly though when she said that there are some years when they conduct as many as three entrance exams.
The person at the Registrar’s Office who took my call said that supposedly, the April 12 exams should be the only exams for the College of Nursing and that aspiring nursing students should not have taken the general entrance exams. He admitted it was their office which set the 95 cutoff for Nursing. His tone was apologetic.
In fairness, I do not think that the peddling of false hopes to the examinees who got 95 to 97.99 and their relatives was intentional and attended with malice. But the result was the same: deep disappointment and wasted money and time. The university should determine the persons responsible and sanction them. Stupidity should never be countenanced in a reputable institution of learning like the BSU.
