Negros sends rescue team to Southern Leyte

A rescue team from Negros Occidental’s Red Cross chapter was dispatched to St. Bernard town in Southern Leyte to help in digging out possible survivors and fatalities in the mudslide that covered Barangay Guinsaogon.

The Negros-based Red Cross chapter team headed by Antonio Mabayag is just one of the many dispatched to the area from abroad including the United States Navy who are racing against time to recover possible survivors.

Of course, hopes have become dimmer that any of the more than 1,000 missing persons are still alive. But as pointed out by Mabayag, hope springs eternal.

Other members of the Negros team are Gefegline Geralao, Henbin Baylon, Enrique Toda Jr., and Eddie Silvano. The Bacolod Chapter head is Geevy Gregorio.

Mabayag said that during the rescue operation mud started rolling down the mountain so rescue workers were hastily pulled out of the area.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon said the provincial government and other local government units are pooling their resources to raise around P100,000 to be sent to St. Bernard.

Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia also said the city government will conduct a campaign for assistance to the disaster victims. The Diocese of Bacolod, through the Social Action Center, has also appealed to parishioners all over the Bacolod Diocese to pitch in any amount for the disaster victims.

The PNRC Bacolod is also accepting donations in cash and in kind, said Edyil Tan.

Fabricanians grieve for Bagatsing

Manila’s officialdom and employees as well as residents must have grieved profoundly for the demise last week of former Manila Mayor Ramon Bagatsing. But nowhere has a community been as profoundly touched by Bagatsing’s death as the small barrio of Fabrica in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.

My family and me were touched personally by Bagatsing’s demise. For a time, we labored under the illusion that he was indestructible. Few were aware that the former Manila mayor was like my elder brother for a long time. He was a fraternal brother of my late father, Sir Knight Fulgencio Espina, and my mother, Gracia Lopez, a member of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.

We have always been close to the Bagatsing brothers, especially Tommy and Modesto, both had preceded "Monching" as the mayor was fondly called.

But the wake for Bagatsing was short. And many of us who had wanted to fly to Manila to pay our last respects for Monching failed to do so. My own daughters, Mary Ann and Nenen, were unable to attend the wake at the Loreto Church in Sampaloc. Only daughter, Lou, called up and told me she went to attend the Mass at the Alabang Hills subdivision. But she did not introduce herself to any of the Bagatsing children.

But that’s beside the point. In my own way, I wish to pay tribute to a person who was never ashamed of where he came from. Several years ago, he escorted his entire family back to Fabrica to show them the place where he spent his youth. His father was a security guard of the Insular Lumber Company.

But at the time of his visit, Fabrica had already become a laid-back community. It had lost its previous reputation as the cosmopolitan and well-advanced village of Negros Occidental, which produced outstanding national figures, including Bagatsing himself.

Still, that did not deter him from pointing out the places where he played as a young boy. That definitely must have shocked his children to know that while they had already grown up with silver spoons in their mouth in their Manila residence, their father worked as bus conductor while studying at the Negros Occidental High School.

But there was one touching scene that I could never forget. He told his two sons — former Congressmen Amado and Ramon Jr. — never to forget Fabrica and to try and help their barrio.

As he toured Fabrica and Paraiso, Bagatsing surprised me that he knew a lot more about Fabricans, especially his generation. I learned about the many he had helped and his continued focus on Fabrica through the Fabricanian Foundation.

There was the brakeman of the Sagay Sugar Central who had lost his legs and was sent to Manila by the Fabricanians and Bagatsing’s foundation managed to have him fitted with an artificial leg. The person returned to Fabrica and proudly displayed that he could even jog with his artificial leg.

Bagatsing had a colorful career. A pre-war member of the Manila police department, he was inducted into the Philippine Army during World War II and survived the Bataan Death March. Later, he became a lawyer, an official of the Elizalde and Company, and much later joined a lot of other corporations. Much later too he threw his hat into the political ring and ran for congressman in the third district of Manila (Sampaloc). He served twice in the Lower House before joining the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

Anyway, it was much later that he became mayor of Manila. He survived the Plaza Miranda bombing. He and his late wife, Annie, recounted how he suffered a near-death experience. He was considered clinically dead when brought to the hospital. Until his death, I supposed, he still had several shrapnels left in his body. That was when he lost his leg.

All those years, Bagatsing celebrated his birthday with the poor of Sampaloc and nearby areas.

But what touched me most was when he was no longer mayor, Bagatsing responded to a fire call. While we were viewing Manila firefighters and policemen, several of them came forward to pay tribute to their "mayor." Several stressed that he is still "their mayor." His compassion and generosity must have gained him the loyalty of the ordinary government employee.

Well, Monching is gone. And the Fabricanian officers can only pay him tribute for his consistent support to the village where he came from. That’s why Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon recently told the officers of the dying organization to resurrect and nurse it so that the young, who never experienced Fabrica, may share the same pride and commitment to their village as did our generation.

I can only say — my salute to a true kumpadre.

Belated honors for Lopez Jaena

Antique Governor Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez recently informed me that Manila Mayor Lito Atienza had assured her that he was going to put a statue of Graciano Lopez Jaena, the Ilonggo national hero and founder of La Solidaridad.

But the more thrilling news was the assurance by President Arroyo that she would help establish the proposed shrine and museum for Lopez Jaena at Fajardo Street in Jaro, Iloilo. This was the house where Lopez Jaena was born and lived.

Well, it’s about time that Lopez Jaena receives the honor he deserves as the precursor of the three leaders of the Propaganda Movement — Marcelo H. del Pilar and Dr. Jose Rizal.

The promise by the President was reportedly made in the presence of members of the Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation headed by historian Demy Sonza. My niece, Mia Lopez, relayed to me the same information. The daughter of a cousin, Graciano Lopez, is a member of the board of trustees of the foundation as I am.

This was the long-time complaint of Lopez Jaena’s descendants. That the Ilonggo national hero was never accorded the same status as a national hero as the others from Luzon. This time, hopefully, not only Western Visayas but also the rest of the country can give him his just due as a national hero.

Ibajay typhoid fever

I had packed up my things before the weekend to go to Ibajay town in Aklan to attend to some family concerns. But I hastily unpacked when I learned about the raging typhoid fever in the town.

The report said that 42 persons had already been treated for symptoms of typhoid fever, with 31 reportedly hospitalized at the Ibajay District Hospital in Agbago. Three of the 42 were reportedly transferred to the Dr. Rafael Tumbokon Memorial Hospital in Kalibo, the capital town of Aklan.

The problem seems to be that the main source of water of the village where the typhoid fever was raging were deep wells constructed way back in 1990. The problem, according to local authorities, was that some of them had forgotten to boil their water before drinking.

Although health officials and local authorities have started to take active steps to curb typhoid, a person of my age can no longer afford to expose myself to such an infectious disease.

ADDENDUM. A rash of robberies and swindling cases has hit Bacolod City recently. The problem is that these cases have remained largely unsolved. And Chief Superintendent Pedro Merced of the Bacolod PNP has his hands full addressing the crime upruse. Poor guy. He still has to put his handle on the horrendous traffic problem that has plagued the city for years. Tricycles still invade the streets where they are supposed to be prohibited by a local ordinance. And the log jams are still occurring almost all the time in the city’s principal streets, especially along North drive and La Salle Avenue, the area fronting the Colegio de San Agustin and the Robinsons along Lacson Street. Oh, well, things are supposed to just give way to solutions later.