Again, because of its huge or magnitude
effect not only to the people here in the highland, with just a flick of finger, the issue seems like a wildfire spreading quickly than we expect. Note that in my column last week, we just mentioned to remember the fallen but braved SAF-44, whose few members are from our beloved Cordillera. While the pain is still there and here, offering prayers for their souls and families left should have closed it momentarily and peacfully.
*** ***
However, the sudden revival of the biggest issue (to me) that hounded the ‘Yellow administration,’ – the Mamasapano debacle, was sparked by the move of PRRD (initials coined to mean President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) to re-open the case and determine once and for all the true story behind the incident, and then to see later the extent of liability of those who were to be declared responsible for the said confusion. Surely, the pain will be re-opened but if it will lead to final closure, then so be it. Remember, those who are perceived to be responsible are not in power in anymore. Watch out then for the coming out of The Ghost of Mamasapano!
*** ***
On another matter that is so close to my heart. Every time PRRD says something against the Church, I mean the Roman Catholic Church, I cringed. While we understand that he is not a catholic, he is neither a member of the other religious group or sect to. But he said he believes in the Almighty. After all, he is not an atheist! My appeal to him is he just have to shut his mouth on this issue and concentrate to unite the people of this country. A person, the people, groups, great leaders, great athletes, achievers, and others, somehow commit mistakes and provided they change into a better person, then that would be best part. Closed case.
*** ***
Anyhow, back to the hinterlands! We again enjoy the cool weather here in the Cordillera, in Baguio and Benguet, particularly, in that no other part of the country can offer to us, while we do our best to sustain our own livelihoods for our living. In our mining site here in Padcal, we continue to improve our efficiency to sustain production. The Mine continues to dig deep into the bowels of the earth and the mountains to bring those precious ores into the surface. They labour so much, even risking their own lives, and work out their respective shifts and wait to see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.
*** ***
Then the Mill waits in line to receive the tons and tons of ore that is delivered by the Mine. It too labours 24/7 like the Mine to complete the process. The end result is that the concentrate ore containing precious metals of gold and copper awaits their delivery to the waiting boat down in La Union. This is the daily process we follow here to earn a living and sustain the families of these workers, including the host and neighbouring communities. You see, mining sustains lives.
*** ***
In order to see that continuity of this sustaining process is maintained, we need to look around and see where we can still work on to look for ores to work with. That is our hope and our vision to look beyond the year 2022. I believe that the Lord always bless this mining community in Padcal Mine and that He will see to it that this hope, wish and prayer will be into fruition in His time and in His way.
*** ***
Just recently, a lot happened in this mining community. We witnessed the signing of the memorandum of agreement and the breaking of ground to construct a secondary school building to cater to agriculture and related subjects for the senior high school program of the DepEd. That is a whopping 16 million pesos of initial funding coming from the social development funds of Philex. This is also in support to the K-12 education program of the government. The children of Itogon and nearby areas would greatly benefit from this. Who says that mining and agriculture cannot go hand in hand? If this kind of school rose in my beloved Aringay, I could have forgotten lawyering, and ventured into agriculture. Oh, I remember our mini-La Presa, the sayotes, the camotes, the taros, the tomatoes, the alugbatis! Hmnnn… and that would be another good story.
*** ***