NAPO TO BABAG TALES II: Kahugan Trail

I WOKE UP FROM the incessant vibrations and alarms that my Nokia emitted. It was four at dawn, September 7, 2008. Looking beyond my window, I could see the somber sky developing gray overcast clouds that parlayed of an ominous rain coming. I have to rise from my warm bed, brave the the cold water from the pipe and take a quick shower and, from there, embrace the cold wind outside.

Ah, another round of trekking the old trails from Guadalupe to Mount Babag (752 meters above sea level) is in schedule and I have to go on and meet Boy Toledo and Ernie Salomon. They were there with me on August 17 when we tackled the old route together with Glenn Lao. As in the previous trip, we would meet at the Virgen de Guadalupe Parish grounds at eight in the morning and start from there.

I arrived earlier, and was able to catch the 7:00 AM Holy Mass for the first Sunday of September. The Mass ended after an hour; Boy T and Ernie were already there plus Nathan Cannen, Myla Ipil and Harold Alcontin, the GPS Man. Good! Six is a good company. The rains started to fall but it didn't dampen our spirits one bit as most of us, except me (as always), brought rain gears. We stopped by a carenderia at the back of the church and bought packed lunch before proceeding by foot for Napo in Sapangdaku.

It rained hard on the asphalt road to Napo but it gave more meaning to the purpose and scope of our activity: the harder the climb the better! Reaching the community center of Napo, we treaded the trail down the Guadalupe-Sapangdaku River and crossed the creek hopping on a series of boulders placed midstream. We followed the snaking trail in and around the communities that lined the waterway and crossed it again on another shallow ford.

The rains never let up turning the trails slippery and muddy. We ascended slowly grasping at branches and twigs to keep our balance. At this juncture, I offered to be at the tail end of the group to assist Boy T in going up and guiding him where to place his feet on the slippery terrain. We passed by a flower-growing lot that was so steep and without a handhold slowing our pace.

We kept trudging on, walking uphill, resting a while to catch our breath. The cold wind blasting our exposed part as we shivered and cuffed our hands. Good thing nobody wore a pair of sandals else it would have been a waste of useless exertion and a heart breaker. We passed by again the same lone male goat munching from bound leaves suspended from above. It was deja vu for Ernie, Boy T and me.

The forest, or what was left of it, in the back country of Cebu City suddenly came alive during the rains and I could not help but sulk in the warmth of its gratitude and silent praise to a higher being above the heavens from where these liquid graces came forth. Oh, it's good to be a part of the earth again, soaked to the ankles, muddy and exposed to the elements that reminded me of my childhood years.

We reached a hill where a lone house stood at and rested there for a while as a little boy offered his humble abode to us. I promised him a pair of shoes the next time I will pass by. We bade goodbye to the kid and went downhill and crossed some upper part of the Guadalupe-Sapangdaku River and climbed again another uphill stretch.

Here the trail was quite steep, loose and slippery. I improvised in ascending the difficult trail by using a broken branch as my staff as my “toothless” and pre-owned pair of Columbia shoes could not give a respectable performance. In between, I have to push Boy T up so we could move forward a little bit and hopefully, reach the summit by noon.

At 1:15 PM, we finally had enough tackling the trail with a hungry stomach, so we took lunch just two hundred meters away from Mt. Babag. After ten minutes, we finished the remaining length and made a U-turn back to where we came from – Guadalupe. We took a different trail this time passing by Kahulogan (or Kahu'gan).

The trail led us downhill, crisscrossing mango tree farms and brooklets and huge boulders. We crossed by small rivulets of water that came alive during the onset of rain and splash our way over small ponds along the trails and small waterfalls appeared making our downhill trek enjoyable. But we have to be back at Guadalupe by 3:00 PM as we have to attend a membership meeting of the Cebu Mountaineering Society (CeMS) at four.

Harold put up a torrid pace, then was followed by Boy T, Nathan and Myla while Ernie and me lagged behind. Ernie and I found at our wit's end wondering where did Boy T got that sudden surge of energy when, the last time we knew, he was gasping and crawling the last two hundred meters of our ascent at Mt. Babag and we thought he would give up at Ernie's trail. Half-running, we tried to keep up the pace and close the distance between Boy T and us, but, Boy T became Speedy Gonzalez that day!

I could just imagine how Boy T's Oakley hiking shoes would screech and careen over bends and turns of the snaky trail as a trail of vapor would follow his wake hurrying to reach Napo by three in the afternoon. Ha...ha! Boy T, you never cease to amaze me and, by His good graces, you seem to be on the way to a recovery. God be praised!

We arrived at Guadalupe at 3:20 PM and all hopped happily inside Nathan's Isuzu Crosswind for the CeMS meeting. Gladly, even as we were half-wet, we were able to make it to the meeting and there was a lively quorum. We even inserted our just-concluded trek and made a post-climb report to all present.

It was the second time for me to pass by and follow Ernie's trail and, I know, it will be a busy trail soon. The trail is a good training ground for aspiring mountaineers and a perfect complement in preparing future CeMS climb and only a few have tried it. It will be a trail that I will tackle repeatedly alone or with a group in the coming weeks. I would be glad to share the trail with you if ever you would want to go with me.

“Oh, the freedom of unimpeded movement is most cherished by only a few daring ones.”

- Ernest Hemingway

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LICKING POVERTY THE TACTICAL WAY

THE CUT-THROAT TACTICS practiced by among the myriad competing private security agencies here in the Philippines have affected much the security agency industry today. Majority of these security agencies dived their offers way way below the standard rate just to secure and get hold of a contract without thinking of their main workforce and frontliners: the oft-exploited individual security guard.

Although PADPAO, an umbrella organization of private security agencies, tried their best to implement a standard and uniform rate policy, but, sadly, on some rare occasions, their members and officers were allegedly the first to break their imposed rules and, as a result, others would just follow. To each his own then becomes the unwritten rule of the day!

These unscrupulous security agencies are becoming a nuisance among members of good standing; the Security Agency and Guard Supervision Division of the Philippine National Police (SAGSD-PNP) have made only a minuscule dent among their numbers and just content themselves making just a slight tap on the wrist upon any erring member. There are no discernible safety nets enforced and what rigid rules implemented would just melt away when money talks and passes below a table. It's a reality here if you talk of how much things would move around here.

Today, the minimum daily wage mandated by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Cebu Province, to include the Metro Cebu Area, is Php267 (about €4.09 at Php65.14 to €1), which is adopted by PADPAO to be implemented to all security agencies in paying the salaries of their security guards. With that salary, a government think-tank suggested, a family of six in Central Philippines would be able to overcome hunger. We just hope so.

Despite that, many fly-by-night security agencies took advantage of the prevailing poverty situation and the dearth of available jobs in the market to make a killing to the consternation of legitimate agencies. But sometimes, it is through the instances of some commercial establishments who would goad these mercenary agencies to settle on very low contract rates as they embarked on cost-cutting measures to stay afloat.

At barrel-bottom rates, security agencies are forced to give a monthly salary to their security guards at Php4,000 to Php5,500 (around €61-€84), else, they will hire an unlicensed one to do their bidding. At that stage, performance and services are being sacrificed, resulting to unsatisfactory customer satisfaction. With that rate, the assigned guard will no longer avail of the Social Security System (SSS) and PhilHealth benefits due to them as the agency will be constrained not to remit their share to the state fund to make a slim profit out of it.

The moment the security guard will be sidelined due to illness, by accident or under litigation, he will have to fend for himself and his family, as the agency will surely abandon all financial assistance and support due to him which he justly deserve by law. What money earned to support his family will be sacrificed and he has no other recourse except to tap money lenders which, ultimately, push him hard to the ground of extreme poverty and starvation.

Cases like these are common among the steady crop of security guards applying for a slot with Tactical Security and Detective Agency, Inc. They have to bail out from their previous agencies who, they deduced, are not minding their welfare and benefit but engage in other trivial matters like politicking and backstabbing other agencies. Tactical Security, in the past, have never been influenced by the actions of these unscrupulous security agencies yet they took on a form as if we were one of their numbers after years of operation until new management bought out the whole stock, lock and barrel from the previous owners.

On January 16, 2008, we at Tactical Security decided to overhaul the whole system by studying and planning the course of the agency into what it was during its better days. One of those that we scrutinized well and focused on was the large percentage of guards receiving salaries well below the minimum set by DOLE at that time, which is pegged at Php250 (€3.90). During our takeover, there were a total of 189 security guards and barely 30% of these receive the standard wage.

Tasking Mr. Omar Pace and Ms. Malou Cagang, respectively, the operations and administrative officers retained by the new management, to re-negotiate the existing contracts and deliver to the guards what they justly deserve – a living wage to feed a family of five, to include a very regular SSS, PhilHealth and state insurance contributions; we were able to turn around the agency from a “for-profit-only” entity into a corporate with a social conscience.

Aside from that, we were able to reverse the existing guard strength (now around 300) that receive the minimum wage to around 83% up from the previous 30%. But, most of all, our cash flow has shown significant liquidity as we were able to equip our agency with more assets and equipment as more and more good-paying clients noticed our agency's effort to professionalize our corps of security officers and guards and contracted us to secure their properties and personnel.

We also were able to give refuge to many dissatisfied security guards coming from other agencies by absorbing them to our family and providing them better income by posting them to choice clients which we were able to capture through our aggressive marketing strategy. Providing them good services and attending to their needs like up-to-date release of salary through ATM and cash advances without interests, we were able to gain back the security guard's esteem and, conversely, our standing before the community were raised to a higher level.

At the end of the day, Tactical Security have done its share in providing adequate attention to the ordinary security guard, without whom, we would have not existed. These security guards, who toiled exposed to the elements and never took a glance to an inviting chair for a moment's rest just to protect his agency's contract, without which, he would have no business being there. By and by, it is a symbiotic existence. Each could not stand without the other. For that, we treat our personnel well. They are our jewels. They showcase our agency to the public.

Document done in OpenOffice 2.1. Writer, Trebuchet MS font, size 12.