Korean tour firm suspended over Pinatubo lake death

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga , Philippines– The mayor of Capas, Tarlac has suspended the operations of a Korean firm engaged in promoting treks to the summit of Mt. Pinatubo following the drowning of a balikbayan in the volcano’s crater lake last Jan. 2.

Mayor Antonio Rodriguez has frozen the permit of Pull Travel Destination Corp. (PTDC) which owns the PDC Spa in Barangay Sta. Juliana, Capas town, usually the takeoff point for treks to the Pinatubo summit.

Police reported that Roselito Julao, 44, a vacationing balikbayan from England, died of a heart attack, but his relatives who met with Rodriguez insisted that he was in good health and had no history of heart ailment.

A day after the incident, the regional office of the Department of Tourism (DOT) issued a warning, based on earlier findings of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, that the crater lake contains hazardous substances such as arsenic, aluminum, boron, chloride, iron, manganese, sulfate and total solids that “may affect human health in various ways and may become fatal over an extended period of time.”

The DOT also warned that the Pinatubo summit, which has become a major tourist attraction, should “never be treated like a resort playground for swimming, kayaking or aqua cycling.”

Julao, along with seven relatives and friends, hired the services of PTDC for the Pinatubo trek last Jan. 2. Upon arrival at the summit, Julao reportedly jumped into the lake but did not surface. He was fished out within a few seconds after his dive.

Rodriguez issued the suspension order to PTDC after its officials failed to attend a meeting that he called to look into the incident.

Present during the meeting were the victim’s wife, Dr. Rowena Victoria-Julao, his sister Dr. Emily Julao-Babaroso, and his eldest sister, Esther Julao, a staff nurse at the St. Georges Hospital in England.

Local guides present in the meeting said they underwent emergency rescue training from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council a year ago.

But Julao’s relatives said an unidentified Serbian doctor attended to Julao at the Pinatubo summit, as the guides were apparently not trained in medical emergencies.

The lack of basic medical equipment and adequate communications equipment was also raised in the meeting, as Julao’s relatives noted that a makeshift stretcher made from tree branches and life vests was used to bring Julao to a hospital.