Motorcycle Philippines

Report by MCPF Director Jojo Medina

I just came back from the Bicol relief mission from Tuesday to Thursday of this week.

I felt I needed to do this report as a thank you for the donations and the prayers that you gave to our fellow countrymen in bicol.

We have gathered a total of 2 isuzu elf trucks with an estimated value of 200,000. coming from members and friends of Motorcycle Philippines Federation (MCPF) And the La Salle Greenhills Batch 82 Alumni Association

My team were planning to deliver the goods since Sunday but we postponed it since there was another typhoon Seniang that hit the southern part Luzon during that day. It was also a blessing in disguise since we found out that we needed to replace the brake and clutch system of my truck which we did all day Sunday to Monday.

Finally my group composed of my trustee driver Fernando, Atoy Sta. Cruz also a director of MCPF and my long time riding buddy Egay de Guzman and myself finally took off on Tuesday December 12. .

Day 1 Tuesday December 12

The trucks were loaded with relief goods composed of medicines, food , sacks of rice and used clothing and were ready to go. WE were so eager and pumped up to go since we have been waiting 2 days already for this trip and we finally took off at 5 a.m.. Our connections in malacanang called us up also and ask if we wanted to join the group of about 200 trucks also going on a mercy mission to bicol to bring relief goods. We declined since they were planning to leave at noon and we wanted to arrive earlier. We think hotels will also be fully booked in NAGA because of this. NAGA is located about an hour from albay by car but if you are bringing a truck full of goods it could take a couple of hours

first breakdown was in calamba where we needed to adjust the brakes of the other isuzu elf trucks which was locking and needed some adjustments. We took the daet route since the quirino highway was badly needs repairs. It ate at least 2 hours of our time since it was a long route but the roads are in great shape. We didn’t want to take the risk of taking the quirino route since those roads are in bad condition and we fear that it could break any of joints of the trucks.

We arrived in Naga by 6 p.m. and was met by Manuel Young of Motortrade and his group and also a fellow mcpf club members they assisted us in checking into a hotel . At this point all hotels in Naga are booked with people trying to help out in Bicol. Also Naga was not hardly hit and had electricity.

Day 2,Wednesday December 13

We left our hotel around 8 since tope prepared some breakfast for us. But the other elf truck gave us problems with its brake system again and it stalled at NABUA albay a few towns from our target place GUINOBATAN. We called on a mechanic and had to look for parts so by the time we finished it was already 1 p.m.. In between the truck stalled , we talked to the locals who has not had electicity since the first storm milenyo and most evacuated their homes already since the water is up to waist deep of their homes. Most of the have been eating rice and instant noodles for a month now. They said that they needed help too but all relief trucks are just passing them.. All their crops are gone and all of them have no work.

Then we entered Guinobatan , it looked like a scene from a movie. I used to call it gubatan cause it looks like a forest where everything is so green. Now it looked like a nuclear bomb exploded on it. Coconut trees have only trunks left. The mountains are brown and it looked like a head of a cancer patient under chemo theraphy.. No leaves in any tree just dead trunks of trees. We also needed to drive carefully since there was electric post and wires on the streets.. We entered the town proper and passed by funeral parlours filled with dead bodies piled on top of each other up to 6 feet high.

Then we saw hundreds of people lining up in front of the municipal hall asking for relief goods. What I noticed too was that the public gym was filled up with relief goods such as rice and boxes of canned goods. ( my friend told me that that the mayor has not been giving it out and are waiting till january. to give it out as part of his campaign strategies for the may elections)

Then we finally entered the school compound of Republic Colleges owned by the family of Tope and has been in operation since the 50’s. the school ground is covered with at least 3 feet of mud. 2 of His school buildings are destroyed and has no roof. We finally saw Tope who was so glad to meet us. He fed us lunch and told horror and heroic stories for about an hour. During the storm , about 200 families fled to his school and stayed at the 2nd floor and above rooms. The flash flood and waters are up to the roof of the ground flood.. Behind his school is the creed which overflowed and the bridge was clogged up with hundreds of dead bodies and body parts. His school has dead bodies at the compound too and what he notice are hundreds of snakes also washed down from the mountains and are in the mud , they looked like the worms at “FEAR FACTOR” where they curl up to each other. That was the other danger that these people have to face. Another story is that 12 year old boy led a lot of families to their school for safety then went back to his family to save them. About 45 minutes later the body of the boy is washed down the creek back to their school compound.. Then we started unloading the goods into one of the classrooms that they cleaned up for the goods.

Afterwards we drove about 10 minutes to the foot of the mountain crossing a river since half of the bridge is destroyed. Tope showed us a subdivision where 400 houses used to be now only about 20 can be salvaged. Hundreds of people walking up and down with water and food and only motorcycles are the only means of transporation. We interviewed some of the survivors.. One woman had a her child on her hand told us that about 3 p.m. a Flash flood from the mountain with waters higher than coconut trees came in from MAYON volcano with it carrying boulders as big as cars crushing houses and destroying people in it. To top it all off mud flows then sand to bury the people. The survived by clinging on to the ceiling of their house.. the husband went out so they could go to the roof but was washed away. He was never seen again. We walked to the next house and saw a Honda city crushed and layed on top of boulders underneath lies the house of it’s owners, with it’s bodies buried . It was a judge with a daughter who is the SK chairman or Sanguniang Kabataan.. We also talk to a lady, a kagawad of that subdivision she was just sitting on the roof of their house . she says all her family are inside their home buried alive. She got lucky cause she was in another town when the storm struck. By Sundown we moved back to Tope school. He fed us dinner and asked for one more favor if he could use our trucks to haul in more relief goods donated by some politicians from other towns so we did set out and picked up some more goods. We drove till about 9 p.m then when all is finished we asked tope that we need to leave and go back to NAGA. He asked us to stay at their home. But we declined. Tope is like a brother to me that I could tell him straight that we had a long day and what we want is a nice shower in an aircon room with a nice bed. It was also a good strategy since Naga is closer to manila and would save us at least a couple of hours driving. His house is also filled up with his relatives who lost their homes and we didn’t want to be a another burden for him.

We spent the next couple of hours driving back cruisingly to NAGA. It was pitch black all over the place. You encounter light ones in while cause some of the people have generators. But we finally reached Naga late at night and checked into a hotel and slept till 4 a.m.

Day 3 Thursday

Woke up at 3 a.m. took showers then left at 4 a.m. this time we took the rough roads of Quirino highway now named Rolando Andaya highway. The other elf truck stalled again and we were fixing it again for 2 hours. Finally we moved and entered quezon province along the seaside we saw crabs and giant shrimps for sale. we bought some and took it to the nearest highway restaurant. We ordered everything on the counter and told them to cook the crab and shrimp for us. What a treat. All food was just newly cooked and hot. We ordered specialties of Quezon like sinigang and paksiw na seafood…

Traffic hit is at candelaria, Quezon and San Pablo Laguna. I told my buddies that I used to go to this place in college more than 20 years ago called Bato resort it was a waterfall with manmade freezer cold water in their pools where you can picnic and hang out entrance was only P10 at that time. Minutes later we saw a big sign that says ”BATO SPRINGS” Egay and I looked at each other’s eye, we didn’t need to talk I just turned the truck. Atoy and Fernando just followed us without hesitation cause they also looked at each other and said this is the place Jojo was talking about . I told the caretakers we want to look first since it has been years since I’ve visited it maybe it’s dirty or ugly already. But it turned out the other way around. The owners improved it and looked better and had more facilities. The waters were still very clean coming from mount Makiling. We were also worried about the entrance fee since it has been 20 some years already and we had no money left in our pockets. They said if was only 50 pesos WOW so we jumped into our shorts and enjoyed the freezer cold waters and we were massaged by the waterfalls What a life!! We felt good that we help the victims in our own little way and enjoyed the trip along the way.

As a conclusion, I think the Bicol area needs at least 10 thousand 18 wheeler trucks worth of relief goods to bring the area back to comfortable level. They need infrastructures and businesses to be repaired to go up so it could produce jobs for the people.

Personally I learned that life should be lived to the fullest!! Enjoy it with your family and God, work hard and play hard, give back your blessings to your fellow men.