MARIVELES, Bataan – All nine mountaineers were declared safe although limping after they were brought down from the Tarak Ridge at Mount Mariveles in Bataan dawn of Wednesday.
Rescuers and the mountaineers, two of them young women, walked for more than 12 hours reaching at 11 p.m. of Tuesday the bunkhouse of the community-based forest management some three kilometers from Barangay Alas-asin here.
At the bunkhouse, medics administered first aid on Kevin Desiderio who suffered a sprain on his foot. The mountaineer almost fell down a ravine but was able to hold on a vine.
The rest of the nine young men and women sustained various wounds from the sucks of leeches known locally as limatik.
From the bunkhouse, they again hiked some meters more to board a farm tractor down to where four ambulances waited for them. At 2 a.m. of Wednesday, they were brought to the Bataan General Hospital in Balanga City.
“Itinuro kami sa maling daan ng isang grupo ng mountaineering kaya naligaw kami,” the mountaineers said.
They said that they were bound for the Panikian Falls in Tarak but instead lost their way and reached the mountain at the side of Pantingan in Bagac, Bataan.
They said they survived on rain water from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning when they were found by two forest guides, one of them an Aeta tribesman.
“Babalik pa rin kami sa Tarak,” said the mountaineers despite the hardships they encountered.
Senior Supt. Audie Atienza, Bataan police director, said he dispatched a team of police officers on Monday morning and another team in the afternoon but all failed in locating the missing mountaineers.
“Masama ang panahon, malakas ang hangin at ulan at makapal ang fog dahil sa bagyong Labuyo kaya bumabang bigo ang mga rescuers,” he said
Atienza and Supt. Melecio Buslig, Mariveles police chief, led rescuers from the police, Philippine Army, Mariveles and provincial medics, members of the Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Office and Barangay Alas-Asin officials.
On Tuesday at 5 a.m., Atienza sent two bigger teams to continue the search for the mountaineers who were found at 9:30 a.m. of Tuesday by two forest guides at the mountain in Pantingan and descended Mount Mariveles starting at 11:30 a.m. of the same day.
“Pabaha-bahagya ay lumakad ang mga mountaineers at rescuers at dahil may mga sugat ang mga mountaineers ay inabot ng alas-11 ng gabi bago makarating ang mga ito sa CBFM bunkhouse at pagkatapos ay sa mga ambulansiya ala-una medya na ng ng madaling-araw,” the police director said.
The mountaineers registered at the Alas-Asin barangay hall at past 8 a.m. of Saturday and started their descent from the beautiful mountain. They were supposed to be back to the village Sunday afternoon.
