Her name is Florita and she greeted me with a furious lash of wind and rain strong enough to blow roofs off its
base and topple pine trees on loose grounds. My July 12 2006 morning started when a text message from Philippine
Daily Inquirer Photojournalist Toots Soberano prompted me to put on my pants and grab my camera to cover a landslide along
Magsaysay Ave. Twenty minutes later, Toots passed by me and off we went to the site in rain gear carefully
assessing the situation. I took several digital still shots and few minutes of footages with my new Sony VX2100. Seemingly,
we were the first newsmen on the scene as it was still early (6:30AM) with no respondents yet on the site to determine
whether there's a living soul inside the vehicles covered with eroded earth. The landslide is actually part of an
upper road that fell toward a commercial district below.
We left the scene after few minutes while furious Florita was still causing damages to other places in northern
Philippines.
The early July 13 radio broadcast announcement breaks another landslide incident in Baguio and this
time it is in a place close to my residence. As a trained member of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC)
of the Cordillera Administrative Region, I rushed to the scene and saw a situation where I do not want
my house to be into-under loose soil while raining heavily. I met with Punong Barangay Camilo Estepa (village chairman)
and City Administrator Peter Fianza who assured the affected homeowners that proper assistance be provided to them. Above
the two houses at risk is an ongoing building construction owned by the Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital. Both
Estepa and Fianza called the attention of the hospital management to fix the problem. Art Tibaldo
I was actually forewarned that at age 45, one can lead a dangerous life and that is probably why Cal.
45 automatic pistol is still considered one of the most powerful handgun in the world.
