By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
We were too early last week. We put to bed the issue last Wednesday. The only thing left to be done was to run it on the machine so the issue would come out. As of that time, we were ahead as far as the Natonin tragedy was concerned. The next day, so many things happened but we could not anymore update the story. At least not the hard copy. Friday, our headline was already history. Our people were already out on vacation Wednesday afternoon so we were helpless.
Then there was the big mistake which was texted to us Monday when the copies were already being read in the provinces. The texter said that Engr. Ester Galong of the DPWH was there in the building (which we got right) but her body was not yet found (which we got wrong). Our person in Mountain Province wrote that one of the cadavers found was hers.
The texter said that a group of volunteers from Besao (where Engr. Galong was from) were preparing to leave for Natonin to help in the retrieval operation. As we hope they will be successful, we also grieve with the family. No closure among family members would be complete without the body being found.
But we hope we are dead wrong and that Engr. Ester Galong survived and is still alive somewhere. With God, there is nothing impossible.
Even if the retrieval operation will officially end today (Friday) there is no prohibition for volunteers to continue searching and retrieve the still not found cadavers of unfortunate victims.
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One good news about the Natonin tragedy was about the volunteers among the survivors of the receent killer landslide in Itogon, Benguet. Small miners that they are, they are surely good in excavation. While their work in Natonin must have been valuable, more important was their spirit of volunteerism. Many of them might not have fully recovered from the tragedy they went through just a few weeks before and yet they traveled hundreds of kilometers to help fellow victims of a natural disaster.
That spirit should be inculcated in everybody’s mind to be actualized sometime in the future.
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Another tragedy that came close to home as far as I was concerned was the death of an old friend, Paquito P. Untalan. We were together at UP Baguio in the late 70s. He was a fellow member of the Ananda Marga Yoga Society. With us in that group were Greg Retuta, Ericson Pagado and him (Pacquito Untalan) who were all UB Science High alumni. Others with us in the group were Felina Masadao (now Dr. Adefuin), Joseph Palispis who is now in the US, and so many others.
When I went to the college of law, he transferred to UP Los Banos College of Forestry. He was staying in the yoga house there. So whenever I was around, we would see each other there. At one time, we even rode a motor cycle from Los Banos all the way to Baguio. He was the driver and I was the “back rider.”
Then we lost track of each other. After about two decades I met him at the lobby of the Benguet State University and we talked for about five minutes. He was then teaching at the College of Forestry. Of late, however, he was director of the Cordillera Regional Apiculture Center of BSU. But before that, I heard the bad news. He was battling the Big C. His doctor was Dr. Felina Masadao Adefuin who was with us in UP Baguio as aforesaid. So he was in good hands.
Then many years passed, more than a decade, so I presumed he was OK from the cancer, as he must have been. Then early last week, the shocker. He passed away from a heart attack or something.
A text message that reached me said that the mass before cremation was on Nov. 3, 2018. It was for a fellow member of the Green Mountain Circle (GMC) and the UPLB Alumni Association. I very much wanted to go but I was confined at home for I was suffering for weeks already from incessant coughing. As if I would cough out my entrails. So I missed the event.
So he and I were members of three organizations—the Ananda Marga Yoga Society, the GMC and the UPLBAA.
I could only hope he did not have to suffer badly.
More on this next week. Also on the transformation of the GMC.**
