Medical mission to the Sierra Madre

The Dumagat tribe living in the Sierra Madre mountain range has been sadly neglected by the national government.

These indigenous people live at the foothills of Rizal and Bulacan provinces which are near Metro Manila—the seat of power—and yet government officials seem to have forgotten them.

Like most other tribal peoples in the country, they don’t have access to medical care.

Their children walk at least two hours or more to get to a public school.

Farm-to-market roads going to Dumagat homes are practically nonexistent. When the tribals are able to get a ride, Drivers of vehicles that ply these routes charge them exorbitant fares.

We received a report that some corrupt Department of Social Welfare and Development personnel are cheating them of their monthly poverty alleviation allowance, giving P300 per family instead of P2,000.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman should go to Sitio Nayon, Barangay Sta. Ines at the Antipolo-Tanay boundary in Rizal province to verify this information instead of staying isolated in her air-conditioned office in Manila.

Now, do you still wonder why most members of this tribe sympathize with and even coddle New People’s Army guerrillas in the Sierra Madre mountains?

My staff at “Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo” and I, together with 10 doctors and dentists from St. Luke’s Medical Center and Chinese General Hospital, experienced the bumpiest ride of our lives on Saturday going to and from Sitio Nayon.

Our purpose in visiting the remote “sitio” was to conduct a medical mission cum feeding/gift-giving program for the Dumagat.

Going there meant taking a 10-kilometer ride, the longest I’ve taken in my life.

We started at 7 a.m. at the junction of the Marcos Highway/Marikina-Infanta Road and Sta. Ines Road in Antipolo town, reaching Sitio Nayon two hours later.

Our team, riding on five 4×4 vehicles—two pickup wagons, two cargo trucks and a sport utility vehicle—crossed 11 shallow rivers that had no bridges, and went up and down rocky roads—or what passed for roads—to reach our destination.

Our bodies ached from the bumpy ride at the end of the day, but our pain was nothing compared to what the Dumagat went through to get to the medical mission site: Most of them had to walk for three to four hours, traversing two mountains.

The site of our medical mission was the compound of a Methodist chapel. Here, 400 people waited for their turns for minor surgery for cysts or boils, including circumcision. Some had their teeth fixed or cleaned while others received free medicines prescribed by doctors.

The medicines were provided to us by SM Foundation, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the Department of Health and St. Martin’s Pharmaceuticals and Bright Resources Lab.

The children enjoyed receiving slippers and candies courtesy of SM Foundation while their parents received food packs.

I can never measure the joy each member of the medical mission experienced seeing the grateful smiles of the simple mountain folk.

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I’d like to express my appreciation to Mazda Philippines for the Mazda Bt-50 4×4 pickup truck the company loaned to my son, Patrick, for the medical mission.

The apparently underrated Bt-50 survived the supreme test of going up and down rocky roads and fording rivers.

My other son, Bon, an off-road driver who drove the pickup, described the Bt-50 as “an intelligent four-wheel drive system.”

Bon, an expert on automotive engines, said he used the four-wheel drive system only five times fording 11 rivers. He said it had “superb power” and was ideal for very rough rides.