Baguio Connections 40

THIS WEEK, some errata first. In last week's column, paragraph 10, "Tamay Ortega Cariño Tagle" should have read "Tamay Acop Cariño Tagle" and "Teodora Ortega Cariño Caoili" should have read "Teodora Acop Cariño Caoili." The Acop there is why there is a place called Acop in Benguet. Yeah, place names.

This week, let us hie to another place in Benguet. In tragedy-swept Itogon, the death toll is at an unspeakable number, as is the one in Cebu. Unspeakable. In a speech delivered at the Benguet capitol the Monday after that terrible Saturday when storm Ompong raged through Northern Luzon, President Rodrigo Duterte said in as many words that it was useless to fingerpoint at that time. That we could only condole. He spoke the truth in one of the single, best, impromptu speeches to come along in a long time. Truthful, heartfelt, well said. We could indeed only condole.

At the briefing that followed, the president first spoke of mining, exhibiting a ruthless knowledge of the industry as it is practiced in Benguet, as it is likewise practiced in Davao, from where he hails. His familiarity with the situation awed many of us. Personally, I see perhaps more clearly now just why his former Environmental Secretary Gina Lopez said -- nay, trumpeted -- that the best DENR Secretary the country could have was President Rodrigo Roa Duterte himself.

It did not escape anyone's attention that the president took the time and trouble to personally visit Benguet and other areas of Northern Luzon devastated by Ompong. Why we personify typhoons like I just did is beyond me. What is not beyond me is when we personify gold in the old adage about it and digging for it with success: "Mangala nga mangala dayta."

And since there is no one line translation for that, neither an easy explanation, we shall leave it there for now, even as we pray for this our country that is in so many storms altogether.