Sister saves brother, pal from Sagada flood waters

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province – A Grade 12 student is now the toast of this tourist town and a heroine on Facebook for rescuing her younger brother and his classmate from raging waters of the Bokong Falls here Tuesday under dangerous conditions.

It was around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday when Conyap Solang learned from her father that her brother, Gang-awan, a Grade 5 pupil was in Bokong with a classmate and  missed classes that afternoon to take a swim at the falls.

She became anxious and worried when she came to came to know of her brother’s situation with pictures posted in Facebook showing waters in Bokong have swelled and flooded the normally gurgling waters of the river.

Photos were sent through Messenger by Gang-awan to her elder sister Dulimay calling for help. Dulimay sent the photos to her mother who is turn informed Conyap of the situation.

From her residence at Sitio Kapinitan located above Bokong waterfalls, she ran down the mountain trail down the river taking her some 15 minutes of adrenaline rush to see from a distance her brother and his friend standing inside the waiting shed located near the falls and water already up their waist and coming up fast.

She could only get to them by crossing the river of raging angry waters. Swimming to them amidst strong current was difficult she had to hold on to something,

She found an alnus branch and held on to this as she swam towards the other side of the river.

She shouted at her brother to hold on to another alnus branch near him he could hold on to while she swam to him.

Strong waters separated them from each other. Conyap was swept downstream and got stuck on a rock.

She immediately swam towards the bank of the river and climbed a stone wall to a rice field across the river.

She looked for her brother and found him at a pathway near the shed beside rice fields.

She came to know Gang-awan got hold of an alnus branch along the waters and swam towards the river bank.

 She went back to rescue the other boy and did the same thing, holding on to the alnus branch and telling Gano to hold on to another branch as she got hear him and gripped his hand safely back to the river bank.

Free from rampaging water, they slowly trudged up the mountain trail to Pumangdew and reached the road to wait for the jeep back home.

That was a 20-minute rescue, a 15 minute run down the river and another 20-minute uphill climb to the roadside.

Every minute counted the moment she learned of the predicament of her brother and his classmate. Longer minutes of waiting would have meant waters swallowing up the two boys seated inside the waiting shed but that did not happen.

Meantime, Conyap’s mother, Ivy was looking for help and anxious on the predicament of her daughter, her son and her son’s classmate. 

Eventually she got a text message from Conyap that they were safe so she proceeded to Pumangdew where the three were waiting for a ride to bring them home.

Ivy said she wants to tell the school teachers and faculty that they should inform parents if pupils are absent.

This way, parents would know that their children did not go to school to look for them.

Asked why she went by herself to rescue her brother and classmate, Conyap said “I experienced before how waters at Bokong swells. But when I went to Bokong this time, the river waters were much stronger and higher. I got nervous.”   

Learning how to swim and deal with landslides, floods and mountain fires are skills necessary for children to learn in this tourist town often hit by storms and disasters.

Netizens on Facebook congratulated the heroic act of Conyap saying she deserves to be given an award for saving his younger brother and classmate.