An incident at Mt. Palay-Palay (Pico de Loro) Our group was trekking down from the campsite when one of our lady climbers got injured 10-15 minutes into the trek. Our group was spread along the trail so my sweeper notified me via our 2-way radio that we have an injured member. I informed them that we’ll wait for them and regroup where we were (a conducive space to rest and recover). When the sweep party arrived together with our hurt hiker, our medics (RN) immediately applied first aid to the injured foot. Our medics tried to relieve the climber of the pain as much as they could but the twisted ankle is so excruciating, thus immobilizing her and unable to put any weight on the said foot. Every step she takes is like hammering her, we even tried to push her to walk down the trail with improvised crutches, but the pain is unbearable and we were left with the decision to let her stay where we regrouped and leave her with 3 of our climbers from our group and let a party of four swift trekkers to rush down to the base camp to seek help from Mang Rey knowing he has a horse who could haul down our injured trekker. Together with the injured climber was our medic and two other experienced male climbers. I was a part of the advance party who trekked swiftly to the base camp and we kept in touch with the injured party via our 2-way radio, but due to the thick forest and distance from one another, our line dropped 30-45 minutes into the trail. With this in mind, it was our top priority to reach base camp as fast as we can and ask for help from Mang Rey. By the time we arrived at the base camp, Mang Rey was not yet around and no one was available to bring the horse to the injured location, so we had to wait and ask around on other viable rescue options. Around 30 minutes later, the remaining members of our group arrived and informed us that the guard house near the base camp have security forces in place already (they were not there when we passed through) so one of us volunteered to go back to the guard house, inform them of the situation and accompany them back to where the injured party is. There were 4 armed security guards, 2 of them accompanied our climber back up and the 2 stayed to guard the area. A few more minutes later they went to the base camp just in time when Mang Rey arrived and informed him of the situation, Mang Rey as we all know him with his hospitality was generous enough to bring his horse up the trail but informed us that the horse would have a hard time to negotiate the trail especially if the injured climber doesn’t know how to ride a horse, luckily, before our volunteer went up together with the 2 security forces, we informed him to tell the injured party to trek down by all means where the horse can fetch them easily. Before Mang Rey went up, he advised us to let our other members go down to the DENR and ask for help from them, saying “Nangongolekta sila ng P25, para san yon? San napupunta yon? Dapat tuwing Linggo may tao sila rito, alam naman nilang eto ang araw ng pagbaba ng mga tao para sa mga pangyayaring ganito. E ako, ako ang namamahala rito, para sa pangangalaga ng daan, e sila, kolekta lang ng kolekta e di naman naten alam kung saan napupunta.” After all the dust has settled, the injured party now at the base camp and the injured climber riding the horse, we all made our way back to the DENR. When we reached the DENR post, I asked around our members who went ahead of us based on my instructions to seek help from DENR. DENR pointed finger to Mang Rey they said. The old lady manning the post said that Mang Rey should be the one responsible for those climbing up the mountain and “WE” should not get any help from DENR. I even heard the old lady manning the post by the time I got there to get P200 from the “Office” funds (most probably of the DENR funds) to be given to the tricycle driver who went up together with 2 more people to fetch the climber once they get to the highway (IMO, it is no use since the help we need is along the trail, not along the highway). The DENR resorted to get a tricycle driver with 2 more companions is because they don’t have any means to send any rescue back up the mountain and this was the only thing they can think off. Now my questions are: 1,) Where does the P25 “DENR Environmental” fee go? 2.) Is it justifiable for the base camp people to collect another P20 since they say they maintain the mountain and in times of need are the most reliable source of help from the mountain? 3.) Who should we get help from in times of emergency cases, from DENR or from Mang Rey and the people in the base camp? ~repost. any thoughts on this?
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 04:51:05 +0000
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