Inquirer:
At least five people were killed as Typhoon “Nina” ripped through Northern Luzon on Sunday and Monday, reports from the Office of Civil Defense in the Cordillera and the Ilocos showed on Tuesday.

In Baguio City, three people were killed in separate incidents when landslides swamped their houses.

Landslides also trapped 13 miners at a 60-year-old underground exit portal of mining firm Benguet Corp.

The miners were trapped by water that filled the tunnels between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Tuesday. The waters are as deep as 300 feet beneath Purok 7 of a subvillage that used to be called Gold Field in Benguet.

Hopes are high that the miners will be rescued.

Reports from the Cordillera Office of Civil Defense said Lolita Baroma, 76, and Juan Baroma were killed when a landslide buried their house in Guisad Surong at past 4 p.m. on Monday. Lielany Fetcha, 38, died when another landslide covered her house at Dominican Extension.

At least 19 others were reported hurt in La Trinidad and Itogon towns in Benguet and in Baguio City due to landslides and floods.

In the Ilocos, OCD reports said Rodolfo Villanueva, 27, of Barangay Bucayab in Bauang, La Union, was electrocuted on Monday at the height of the typhoon.

Censio Culapit, 40, a resident of Quirino, Ilocos Sur, drowned in the Abra River also on Monday.

The three fishermen reported missing in Ilocos Sur and La Union were rescued by their fellow fishermen on Monday.

The OCD said the motorized fishing boat of Sonny Darang, 32, and Jeffrey Graychochea, 28, both of Barangay Bia-o in Sta. Cruz, Ilocos Sur, ran out of fuel while they were at sea. Fishermen found them in waters off Apatot village in San Esteban town on Monday afternoon.

Fishermen found Carlos Quello, 46, in the waters off Caba, La Union, also on Monday.

The Cordillera OCD report said the following roads were closed to traffic on Tuesday due to road cuts and landslides along its sections: Acop-Kapangan-Kibungan-Bakun, Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya, Tawang and Alapang roads in Benguet; Balbalan-Pinukpuk and Kalinga-Abra roads in Kalinga; Abra-Cervantes and Abra-Kalinga roads in Abra.

In Cagayan Valley, officials of the island town of Calayan in Cagayan said the typhoon destroyed at least P25-million worth of property in the town.
Calayan Mayor Joseph Llopis said at least 125 hectares of rice and corn farms were destroyed by heavy rains.

Llopis said the typhoon also damaged three bridges and 16 school buildings and toppled 37 electric posts in the town.

Update: Sunstar Baguio reports that there are 14 people trapped in the mine and lists them as follows: Gilbert Nattem of Banaue, Ifugao; Rudy Boling of Bangaan, Ifugao; Garry Ganu, Joel Bulga, Jeyson Himmayod, Rudy Himmayod, Jojo Himmayod, Juan Himmayod, Marvin Himmayod, Vincent Himmayod, all of Quirino Province; Joseph Anayasan, Mario Annayasan of Bauko, Mt. Province; Gerry Monyobda of Ifugao and Robert Buway of Itogon.

These names were based from a logbook that miners’ sign when they enter the mine site. More from Sunstar: Rescue teams are having a difficult time extracting the trapped pocket miners because of the strong current where the makeshift mine is located and strong smell of poisonous gas.

The landslide at sitio Tuge and Vida in Barangay Loacan was said to have triggered the collapse of the wall along the diversion tunnel of the mine site, causing the buildup of water.

Teams from the Philex Mines and Benguet Corporation, as well as rescue groups from Baguio City also joined the rescue efforts. The SN Aboitiz Power, which runs the Binga Power Plant, also sent a team and equipment to the site for assistance.

To our beloved Cordillerans
BENGFED Hong Kong
May 20,2008

We, the Benguet Federation Hong Kong have been following stories about our fellow Cordillerans who went to China hoping to find job. Amid the outbreak of the news relating to the numbers of Cordillerans engaged in carrying illegal drugs into Hong Kong and China, this has brought a tremendous attention to us.

We, the Benguet Federation raise this campaign as a means of addressing the growing problem of engaging to illegal work overseas while traveling on a tourist visa. We now hope to coordinate with you to disseminate this campaign and educate our fellow Cordillerans, by propagating this advisory to all feasible channels through radio, Internet base, local government like the barangay or even through teachers.

In the advisory given out by Department of Foreign Affairs on May 14, DFA reiterated that there is no job offers for Filipino maids in China and even teaching profession should not entice teachers as there has been strict rules in acquiring the legal work permit and that not all school in China are authorized to hire foreign teachers. In cases where teachers entered China by tourist visa, their visa cannot be converted as working visa, otherwise teachers who insist on working without contract have little protection from mistreatment and abuses, according to DFA.

A bait usually use by illegal recruiters is job opening in Spain, we have collected names of victims fallen into this bait. The illegal recruiter lured victims that they have to fly as tourist in Hong Kong while awaiting for the visa intended for Spain, which never materialized, instead the victims are brought to China or Macau and work there illegally. Desperate enough to feed themselves they have to take whichever is possible to survive even they know it’s dangerous.

In a report published on GMANews.TV date May 12, the ATN or Asistance to Nationals here in Hong Kong headed by Val Roque, mentioned that a girl from Baguio City name Michelle Gabriel, 27, was arrested on March 30 at the HK International Airport for allegedly carrying a 5.5kg of heroin in her suitcase.

Authorities believed that these cases of Filipinas carrying or unknowingly carrying this heroin are used as couriers or “mules” by drug syndicate which maybe operating from Africa.

The Benguet Federation Chairman, Gerald Antonio urged everyone traveling overseas should refrain from accepting any parcel from an acquaintance or a friend even if they are offering money in return for carrying their stuff. He said, it’s not bad to help but we should also think vigilant and learn to say no.

Benguet Federation HK

If anyone should be ashamed, it should be Gloria’s staff because this is something they should have handled smoothly. Isuda ti dapat nga maba-in. Otherwise, Gloria will be liable for stealing if this is what happens wherever she goes, i.e., that she and her people harvest the produce of others without paying. Sabagay, expert naman yata itong si Gloria sa pagnanakaw ng mga bagay na hindi sa kanya.

Ano kaya ang masasabi ng ating kailiyang si Presidential Assistant on the Cordilleras sa bagay na ito? Hehe

From GMA-7: The farmer who billed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the strawberries that she picked is now the one with the “strawberry” cheeks.

Ignacio Canuto wrote a letter to La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan saying that the whole thing was “an unfortunate and embarrassing experience.”

Canuto said that it wasn’t him who personally asked that Mrs Arroyo pay P6,000 for the 60 kilograms of the strawberries that she and her entourage picked from Canuto’s farm in Betag village last Black Saturday.

He said that it was a relative who complained on radio about him not being paid for the strawberries.

“I did not approach any government office to demand payment for my crop, nor was I given the runaround as to what was falsely portrayed,” Canuto wrote.

But Municipal Agriculturist Felicidad Ticbaen earlier said that the payment due to Canuto was indeed delayed because there were government procedures that should be followed.

Ticbaen said Canuto was paid P7,000 for the two huge baskets of strawberries that President Arroyo and her group picked from the farm.

Tibaen also said the neighboring farm was paid P3,000 for the lettuce that the presidential party harvested.

Ticbaen said the media should not have blown up the incident.

Canuto said he had no intention to embarrass those in government.

“I have no ill feelings toward any of our government officials, as I believe the transaction to the purchase (of) the strawberries were all done properly, in the usual course of good business, and in conformity to what has been agreed upon,” Canuto said in his letter.

Canuto did not say what moved him to write the mayor about the strawberry issue, almost a month after the incident. – GMANews.TV

Another proud Igorot achiever I know, is Roderick “Eric” Salvador from Lomon, Kapangan, Benguet. He won Mr. Philippines (not the body building competition but the male version of BB. Pilipinas).

He co-hosted in GMA 7′s show hosted by “Kuya Germs” in preparation for the Mr. World competition. He also co-hosted a North Luzon wide show for ABS-CBN, I think it was entitled “Northern Catch”. After he won Mr. Philippines, he was offered to do a sexy film but he turned it down.

Go Kapangan! Thanks again, Thoroughbred. Now, here’s a picture of Eric which we found here.

Splasher also blogged about Eric here confirming the fact that he was Mr. Philippines 1999. We also learn that he starred in Abong, a movie about an Igorot Nikkeijin which we still haven’t seen but hope to see.

UPDATE: Oops, we also found more pictures in this blog (which may not be safe for work). Check out some of the pictures after the jump.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pageant News and Mancentral.

VIDEO CREDIT: GMA News.

He calls it vegetable profiling. In other countries, it’s called a vegetable quota system. Whatever we call it, programs like these are made to ensure that farmers are not planting the same vegetables at the same time thus ensuring that they would have better income for their produce.

As we all know, if everyone plants cabbage the price of cabbage will drop to P1/kilo. The result: farmers lose all the money they invested and their produce is left rotting on those farms because it costs more money to bring them to the market. Oo nga naman, ba’t mo pa dadalhin ang repolyo sa palengke if all you’ll get is P1/kilo. Kulang pang pambayad ng arkila sa jeep.

So let’s hope that this is not a “no action, talk only” kind of thing and that Governor will follow through with this program. It is, as he said, a practical solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem. Farmers, of course, need to cooperate if this program is to work.

Benguet to start veggie profiling
From Sunstar Baguio

NEXT year, the actual volume of production and demand for vegetables grown in Benguet would be determined, which is expected to address the fluctuating vegetable prices.

Vegetable profiling has been proposed in a bid to balance the volume of supply and demand to help farmers’ have a stable income.

Governor Nestor Fongwan said the profiling in the vegetable industry would start next year, aiming to balance the volume of vegetables produced vis-à-vis the demand in the market.

Fongwan said this would be one of the most practical ways to minimize price fluctuation, which is often caused by the unpredictable volume of agricultural crops produced.

“With the profiling, we would be able to match the volume of production with the volume of demand. In that case, we will be able to maintain stable prices,” he said.

The scheme has also been identified as one of the means to remedy farmers’ problem on globalization.

The upsurge in the volume of vegetables delivered to the trading post leads to a decline in their costs while lack of agricultural supply burdens consumers due to the increase in prices.

Related posts:
Posts on Benguet Governor Nestor Fongwan.
Posts on Vegetable Farmers.

INFO SOURCE: Sunstar Baguio. PHOTO CREDIT: GMA News.

“Napocor paid P2 million in real estate taxes but that is only a drop in the bucket compared to what the government corporation actually owed the province.”

Because of this, the Benguet provincial government has sued the National Power Corporation for P198 million in unpaid taxes. Read Delmar Cariño’s story here.

Kudos to the Benguet leaders for their move. About time our local governments start asserting control over our resources. It should have happened a long time ago but better late than never.

INFO SOURCE: Inquirer. PHOTO CREDIT: Cityofpines.