Kablog2’s Weblog

I missed the May 1st celebrations for the first time in 17 years this year. Instead, I went to Bislig, Surigao del Sur where the great late labor leader Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran spent some weeks leading the workers in their strike against the biggest Asian paper mill, Picop Resources Inc. some years back. Pom’s nephew was getting married and my in-laws were hosting the annual Cahilog-Gamulo Grand Clan Reunion.

It is testament of how Mindanao is so marginalized in terms of development when, at four in the afternoon, there was no longer a bus to Bislig from Davao. We were forced to hire a van to take us a couple hundred of kilometers. A short distance off the Davao-Butuan highway the scenic yet rough road was more hellish than I remember nine years since I last traveled it. It had as many deep craters as the face of gma’s most trusted economic adviser (the one who called her a bitch). At eleven in the evening, in the middle of the jungle, we came to where two log haulers were very nearly on their sides and stuck hopelessly on the ruts, preventing all the other vehicles from passing. We paid an 18-wheeler to pull our 4-wheel drive vehicle through a muddy shoulder so we can be back on our way. Fifteen minutes later, we came to a spot where the ambulance that came ahead of us got stuck in the mud. Its driver tried hard while its passengers where trying to pull or push it. But all he did was to burn rubber while the van’s wheel just kept spinning. Painted on the ambulance’s side was this announcement: “A public service of (Surigao del Sur) governor Vicente Padilla Jr. Some service. His ambulances could not even assure that its patients can get to a hospital alive.We tried our luck but we were stuck ourselves. It took a lot of human power rather than machine power to get us out of that rut. What should have been a four hour trip on paved roads took us seven hours.

Since Picop closed shop there have been no maintenance work done on the road despite the presence of several heavy equipment we passed along the way. The road was heavily forested, unlit and, for long stretches, uninhabited. There were nearly no traffic signs, except near the boundary between Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur where there are hundreds of directional signs placed three meters apart when a pair could have sufficed. I wish to congratulate the governors, congressmen and the public works directors of these two provinces as well as the national government. They’ve managed to clearly show they are the most stupid public officials on the planet.

(The road from Bislig to a congressman’s resort about ten kilometers away, on the other hand, is smooth concrete. Go figure.)

On my third day in Bislig I insisted we go visit Tinuy-An Falls, this sleepy-city’s gem (aside from my wife’s family, of course). Waterfalls are almost always nice, but Tinuy-An is on another level altogether. “Tinuy-An” is a local term which means “designed” or “intended to be this way”. No human can design or equal how beautiful this seven-layered waterfall is. (Wait for my photos of the falls on my Facebook photos to see what I mean.)

But as beautiful Tinuy-An is, the road going there is the exact opposite. It is one ugly ride from the highway to the falls. There is a shorter road going to the place but the local government just had to construct a bridge that rots as easily as the government’s soul so we were forced to take a very circuitous route through logging roads. All along the very narrow roads we took we saw piles of freshly cut trees and not a few hauling trucks full of timber. They are the ones responsible for the very deep and muddy ruts, of course. On both sides of the road, what once was very lush forest has become so bare and scarred that it is now like the skin of a very scabby dog that is about to die.

My father-in-law then told me that the environment officials are powerless to stop the loggers. Two of them were killed in the line of duty some time ago. And they have stopped caring since then. Not very far from all these is a Philippine Army Battalion camp (yes, the same camp who abducted and harassed a Methodist pastor some months back), but is not doing anything to stop this rape. In fact, because of this, I am sure the battalion commander is on the take himself.

I again wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to this country’s government for letting this happen.

I always wish I could go to Bislig at least once a year. But that is just me. There’s my wife’s family and Tinuy-An Falls I have to go home to. Bislig was paradise-like just a few years ago. Now, it is a disaster-area in its infancy, midwife-d by diabolical roads of government neglect, stupidity and corruption.