THE STORY OF FIVE MONTHS - A PERSPECTIVE AFTER 31 YEARS (2)

Chapter 2

A Taste of Kalinga in the Capital Town

 

Picture from www.tripapips.com 

Prior to being fielded to the area, we underwent an in-depth orientation and training about community medicine. We were told we will be sent to communities and live with the people, eat their food, work with them and even learn to speak their language. The concept is not new to us. In our medical years we were assigned for two months in a community and lived with a foster family. Assigned in Balbalan, were the three of us - Rocco* and Chita*, were the other two people.

Photo from hiveminer.com

Armed with our appointment papers, we took the 6 PM Pantranco bus in Quezon City for Tuguegarao. The long trek to Tuguegarao passing areas from Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela and Cagayan Valley through the Pan-Pacific Highway was hardly felt because the travel was at night. We were only awakened by stopovers and the change of drivers in between. We arrived in Tuguegarao just in time for the 5AM trip to Tabuk, the capital town of the then Kalinga-Apayao***. We informed the bus conductor that we need to alight at the Tabuk waiting area and they were very helpful to drop us there. The jeepney that would take us to Tabuk was nearly full and we took our seats inside. We were wondering why we have not started yet, only to find out that even the top of the jeepney were occupied by passengers. They call this phenomenon topload. We were a heaping jeepney load of people travelling through dusty roads under humid conditions passing through parts of Cagayan Valley, Isabela and then to Kalinga. In an hour and a half, we reached Bulanao where the Provincial Hospital was located. Since we were there very early morning, the duty doctor informed the Chief Clinics of our arrival.  She was just living in the hospital compound. She arrived as quickly as she was informed. By probably a wisp of luck, the Chief of Clinics is Dr. Anna Dulatre, a 3rd cousin of my mother, in effect, my aunt. After establishing relationships by virtue of our common town origin we were able to thresh out how we were related. We hit it off right there and then. She invited us to join her for breakfast. We met her family and she introduced us to them graciously. 

Toploading in Kalinga. Photo taken from Samomatic.com

While having breakfast, the common question was that, why were we in Kalinga? What were three UP graduates doing in Kalinga? We wondered to ourselves, it seems the program was not known to them. True enough , after the breakfast when we presented our credentials and appointment papers to the Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Eminiano Flaviano he told us he did not expect us on that day. He said that there was no communications from the Central Office about our appointments and that they had no knowledge of the program that we were participating in. But since we were already there, we were welcomed by their office and were assigned one of the department hostel for visiting doctors which by the way was beside the morgue. We were encouraged to participate in the medical activities of the hospital from seeing outpatients to doing surgical operations as they are in need of doctors. We were supervised by the hospital doctors however. We agreed while waiting for the official communication from the central office. Rocco attached himself to the OB-Gyne Department, I attached myself to the Surgery Department while Chita was assigned to the Department of Pediatrics. Chita was the most adamant among us concerning the set up. She said that if we were still in the clinical department by the second week she will quit the program. Rocco and I were however enjoying doing surgery with the cutting department. During our stay in Tabuk , we were to experience nightly gunshots or crying during the night. We will be awakened deep into the night when a cadaver is transferred into the morgue and when relatives come and get their dead relatives, they would cry and mourn for them. We describe them as our nightly karaokes. We were told there is a high incidence of gunshot wound as a cause of death in the area. We were advised to be in our quarters before darkness sets in.  Before the end of week, we were called for a meeting. At the meeting we met the NGO counterpart of the program, Dr. Clever Virac and the government counterpart in Balbalan, Kalinga , Dr. Cynthia Olidan and Dr. Mario Oliver from the Provincial Health Office. What was surprising during the meeting was that the police and the military were included in the meeting. But what was disconcerting was one of those in the uniformed personnel was sketching our profiles. I was to learn later on that one of the military officer who saw my profile recognized me and told them that I am not a threat and that I am clean whatever that means. 

Photo from vigattintourism.com

People in the provincial health office would like us to stay. When asked why we would like to go there, we told them we would like to discover a paradise like Sagada and the people would laugh. But we were insistent in finding that paradise and off we went to discover for ourselves Gawaan, Balbalan, Kalinga, Apayao. 

(P.S.: Now, Pantranco has folded up. I  was told that there are buses going to Tabuk straight from Manila. Dangwa and Victory Liner services the route. If the traveler took the Tuguegarao route, there are already vans plying the route)

***The province of Kalinga-Apayao and Ifugao of Region 2 were included in the territorial coverage of CAR. In 1994, Congressman Elias K. Bulut filed the bill in Congress for the possible separation of Kalinga and Apayao. On February 14, 1995, Republic Act No. 7878 was enacted.

Note:
If the pictures are not attributed to a website or a person, it is mine. Those who own the pictures I have used and does not want to appear in this blog, please e-mail me at rqmallari60@gmail.com and I would be more than willing to remove them. Thank you.