BENCHWARMER

Samaritans reach out to bus fall victims /Baguio’s water
RAMON S. DACAWI

HUNGDUAN, Ifugao -- An Igorot nurse based in the United States and an anonymous banker reached out last week to Hungduan, a fifth-class town in Ifugao that was plunged into mass mourning after at least six of its residents were killed in a road accident.

On top of delivering two boxes of medicines and joining a recent medical mission to the town, Jenelyn Paclayan-Balanza whipped up $100 as her contribution to a fund drive for the injured and the orphaned. Balanza, of Michigan, was here for the recent seventh Igorot International Consultation in Banaue, but decided to skip the proceedings to join the medical outreach with her niece and fellow nurse, Twinkle Labutan.

The banker, on the other hand, was in a community planning session in Cagayan de Oro when he handed P4,000. “For those who need it more than I do,” he said. It was the same advice he made in previous donations he extended to indigent patients here. As he is wont to, Freddie de Guzman, a Baguio boy and architect in Canada, also responded in an e-mail last week, when he asked for a run-down on the conditions of three patients he is presently supporting.

“Read about the (bus) crash tragedy in (Nueva) Vizcaya and I have a gut feeling you know some of the victims, or at least their families,” he wrote. “Mangipaw-itak bassit, to help ease their medical bills. My prayer goes to all of them.” Freddie asked about John Brix, a six-year old leukemia victim, Nora, a young mother of three kids suffering from schizophrenia, and Filbert Almoza, a young father on regular dialysis for kidney failure.

For months now, Freddie has been sending amounts for their medications. He started his quiet support program the other year when he bankrolled the six chemotherapy sessions of Linda (not her real name), a widow and mother of nine now cured of breast cancer.

News on the support from the three Samaritans was what Hungduan mayor Pablo Cuyahon needed most. Two weeks after the road accident plunged his town into a period of mass mourning, he was still at a loss how the injured and the orphaned can pick up the pieces of shattered lives.

He earlier found solace from delegates to the IIC who passed the hat and asked Rey Baguilat, president of the Igorot Global Organization, to deliver the collection.
Cuyahon and other town officials were gearing up for Hungduan’s annual “tungoh” cultural festival mid-April when the accident occurred. They reduced the celebration into a day so they could attend wakes and burials and visit those still in hospitals.

The 35 victims, mostly natives of Hungduan, were on their way home for the festival when the bus they were on fell into a deep ravine in Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya early afternoon of April 11. It was five days before the “tungoh”, celebrated as a period of rest in the middle of the rice cycle, when the stalks being to flower, in anticipation of a bountiful harvest.

Hardest hit was the family of Dionisio and Grace Dao-ay, of barangay Poblacion.
The couple, both 35, died on the spot while Shan Aryson, their five-year old son, expired the following day. Their three other children were injured – Frances, 11; Neil Denver, 10; and Jerick Jon, 3. Those killed included municipal councilor Peter Pocopio, who was driving the mini-bus that started out from Maddela, Quirino Province. Six of the fatalities were identified to be from Quirino, where many Hungduan natives have resettled.

A report from the Hungduan municipal disaster coordinating council last week said six of the injured were still confined in various hospitals in Ifugao, Quirino, Isabela and Baguio, with some due for surgery. Mayor Cuyahon also acknowledged the support of various agencies in Ifugao, including the office of Gov. Teddy Baguilat who rushed with the mayor to the accident scene.

“The governor and I were so touched by the show of respect for the victims by the people of Diadi, especially those in barangay Nagsabaran where the tragedy occurred,” Cuyahon said. “They picked the victims’ valuables and had these delivered to the town hall where mayor Marvic Padilla had them secured.” People who would like to help Hungduan get back on its feet may call mayor Cuyahon at cellphone number 09057228039.
***
“Let us not wait for our river to become one of the most polluted like the (Marilao, Meycauayan and Obando river system) in Bulacan,” Dr. Julie Camdas-Cabato, one of Baguio’s leading physicians and environmentalists, pleaded last Earth Day.
She was pleading for the restoration of the Sagudin-Balili River during a water forum at the multi-purpose center of city hall. She had with her a list of local “inconvenient truths”, topped by the fact that the water body that forms from Baguio is already polluted.

The central business district is the biggest polluter, she said. The Baguio Water District’s deep wells within the Balili tributaries pump up 12,000 cubic meters daily, she added.

She has more: The Baguio sewer system has reached its designed capacity for 8,600 to 9,000 cubic meter per day. Fifty nine percent of residents do not pay the sewer system fee.There is no comprehensive data base on the state of the city’s sewer system and sanitation infrastructure.

“To address these issues is a daunting challenge for all citizens,” she admitted.

“They seem insurmountable especially when you go on the ground, but with courage
and hope we can face the challenges.” She noted the renewed efforts of some barangays within the headwaters to clean their portions of the tributaries: Gibraltar under punong barangay Orlando Flores, M. Roxas under Rogelio de Vera, Cabinet Hill-Teachers Camp under Jaime Rillorta, Sto. Nino (Slaughterhouse) under Ramon Ramos, and North Sanitary Camp led by punong barangay Virgilio Orca Jr.

In their reports, some of the barangay officials admitted their initial clean-ups seemed ineffective but will continue. Flores earlier brushed aside a suggestion to tap students for the work, saying residents would be more encouraged not to dump their trash once they experience retrieving their own waste.

Gibraltar is on a survey to pinpoint houses without septic tanks and with sewer lines dumping waste into the tributary straddling the barangay. Flores hopes the data would revive and support the barangay’s request years back for the city to consider connecting some septic tanks to the main sewer lines. As the treatment plant has already overshot it capacity, he said building satellite plants or cluster septic tanks may be the alternatives.

“The need to put up more treatment plants should already be on the drawing board within the year instead of having it linger like our problem at the Irisan dumpsite,” Cabato said. Cabato, secretary-general of the Baguio Regreening Movement, an inter-agency group at the forefront of the city’s environmental concerns, recently headed a committee looking into the state of the river, leading to a tie-up with the barangays.

“Let us not wait for epidemics to happen, like it did in other parts of the country,” Cabato appealed. Her reference to the dubious distinction of the Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando river system was based on a listing last year of the most polluted places in the developing world by the Blacksmith Institute, an environmental watchdog based in New York.

Blacksmith said the river “is home to hundreds of thousands of people and numerous industries, most of which pump their wastewater untreated into the river. Carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, lea, and human sewage are just a few components of this toxic stew, which the local population relies on as a source of domestic and agricultural water.”

The institute has teamed up with other agencies to study the extent of pollution, towards coming up with a river rehabilitation plan. The institute is encouraging nominations for “the most polluted places” this year. Unlike Marilao, Baguio can’t blame any neighbor for the pollution of the Sagudin-Balili River which begins from its
rivulets and creeks.