Images still haunt

BENCHWARMER

Ramon Dacawi 

                                                             

BAGUIO CITY --   It’s been 22 years since, yet the image still haunts. The picture never blurred. It’s still all too clear and real, enough to still blur the eyes.

We were then weeks into “Operation Sayote”, the Baguio media-initiated relief operation launched on Independence Day in 1991 with the pony boys at the Wright Park bridle path, three days after Mount Pinatubo blew its top. Volunteers were at the regional office of the Philippine Information Agency fronting The Mansion that is the Philippine President’s summer residence here in Baguio We were then  sorting donations for the next shipment of  relief goods to lahar-devastated areas of Central Luzon.

I opened a small, recycled canned milk carton.  Inside the brown box were small, see-through plastic packets containing legumes: black and white beans. Each seed aggregate was about the size of a child’s fist, as if scooped by a kid’s palm and placed into the plastic packet. Each packet was tied near the mouth with a string. Each string end held a rectangular tag cut or torn out of a notebook or a grader’s writing pad.

Each tag bore the name, the grade and the class or section of a child, apparently in his or her own handwriting. The names now skip my memory. What I remember was that the box came from Mountain Province, I guess from an elementary school in Bontoc, the capital town.

The donors must be now in their late 20s or early 30s. Some must be now teachers, lawyers, doctors; others  farmers, carpenters, masons and such.  Or overseas workers somewhere out there somewhere eking out a living to be able to raise their own kids.

Whatever, whoever and wherever they are today, they were not and are not what they had or now have. Neither were  or are they what they  didn’t and don’t have. They were and are measured by how they shared whatever they could then. And because they grew up as such, I’m sure they’ll continue to share whatever bounty will come their way, this time with bigger, and therefore, more generous hands. 

As inspiring as the image of those packets of white and black beans was that of a perishable, over-ripe pineapple head wrapped in newspaper by a kid from Sablan, Benguet who also sent it to “Operation Sayote” 22 years ago.  

“Operation Sayote”, which delivered some 250 tons of relief goods – mostly sayote and upland vegetables - to Central Luzon, was inspired by the generous nature  of the versatile cucurbit native to South America the now grows in abundance up here in the Cordillera. A perennial, sayote grows and bears fruit year-round. Unlike our temperate-climate vegetables, avocado-shaped fruit is not easily perishable and can be stored for days  without losing its succulence.  

The vine respects no boundaries, man-made or natural. Its tendrils and shoots climb over cement walls, barbed-wire or steel fences, to share its bounty with neighbors, even without the knowledge or consent of whoever planted it.

To many up here, sayote proves to be a blessing, a life-saver. It can stewed or sautéed, with or without canned sardines, or blanched and dipped in “bagoong” (anchovy paste). It’s the old reliable for farmers limited to growing them in gulleys and ravines. Many a sayote farming family will readily swear their produce helps them raise and support their children through college.

Used to surviving on sayote during lean months like this, pony boys at the Wright Park  hauled in sacks of sayote for the relief mission launching on June 12, 1991 at the bridle path.  It was their way of observing Independence Day, three days after the volcano began erupting.

Others who didn’t have sayote poured in more perishable vegetables that spurred the frequency of the relief missions 22 years ago. The problem then was not the lack of vegetables but the lack of trucks to deliver Benguet beans, carrots, cabbage, wombok, succhini or whatever our upland farmers and vendors could give. Hours after our radio stations aired the call, the garage of DZWT-WR was overflowing.

After all, it was barely a year after the July 16, 1990 earthquake.hit.  Baguio, Benguet and the rest of Northern Luzon were then recovering fast from that earth-shaking devastation, propped up by the outpouring of support from all over. It was then time to return and pass on kindness.

Even our brothers and sisters who took refuge in the hills momentarily took respite from their mission for revolution for the relief mission. A team knocked one morning at the door of BomboRadyo, with seven sacks in tow.

“Mapulang umaga sa inyo, mga kapatid,” one of them greeted the outfit staff. “Ito lang po ang kaya naming maitulong.” They begged off from an interview and  left without telling their names.

Later, men of an Aeta village in Zambales helped unload the sacks, unaware what the brown-looking sticks inside were for. Photo-journalist Toots Soberano took out a stick, broke it in half and then lit the ends with a lighter. Instantly, they were burning like torches. Faces glowed over the practical use of pine peat or “saleng” to ignite cooking hearths or to light one’s way at night.

The volunteers developed a bias for the “kulot” communities for their discipline, something wanting in some of the “unat” or non-indigenous communities they ventured into. At an Aeta relocation site in Planas, Porac town, villagers waited for instructions from their headman before unloading two truckloads from “Operation Sayote”.  “Kayo na po ang bahalang mag-distribute,” mission leader Swanny Dicang advised the headman.

Through those months and years of “Operation Sayote”, Bernard Dicang, Swanny’s elder brother, opened his home in Dinalupihan, Bataan  as the volunteers’ midway recharging center. He had them turn his goats into “pinulpugan” and his fowls (chicken, duck and geese) into “pinikpikan”. Now and then, he would order milkfish from Orani town and contact the town butcher to set aside a chunk in time for the arrival of volunteers aboard the next relief convoy.

The last “Operation Sayote” shipment to Central Luzon was in 1995, loaded on Dan David’s beer delivery truck for Bacolor, the last town to be affected by the volcanic eruptions. We reached the town as it was being submerged by rain and lahar, with residents on their rooftops being airlifted by helicopters to a gym in San Fernando City.

“Buhayang nawala sa inyo noong isang taon,” one victim told us, referring to those who perished in the July 16, 1990 earthquake here. “Kabuhayan namanang nawala sa amin ngayon,” he added, pointing to nearby fields of green slowly being enveloped by floodwaters mixed with volcanic ash.  Inside the gym in San Fernando, we saw hundreds of evacuees, some staring blankly with glassy eyes.

The image of tiny beans scooped and shared by tiny hands 20 years ago still serves as a counterpoint to that haunting image in San Fernando. So will the revival of “Operation Sayote” be a much-needed juxtaposition to the heart-rending images of the continuing tragedy in the Visayas in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. (e-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.)