Trapped!

By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
24 October 2010

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Lifting the miners one after the other through the customized iron capsule was a reality slowly unfolding, a real-life drama that have surely inspired the entire world. It has captivated my senses; it moved me and indubitably, the rest of the world.

The old adage “There is light at the end of the tunnel” was absolutely validated by this moving episode of human survival. Trapped under more than two-thousand feet for seventy solitary days, the incident would have sent to some the signal to quit believing they could survive; this skepticism would have contaminated the number which would have eventually led to a mass resignation – resignation from living.

But there is more to the story than the saving grace. What actually enthralled the whole world was the resiliency of the team to remain composed throughout the period. After NASA found out the condition of the skilled workforce, the government mobilized concerned units to send them provisions; technology was brought to their temporary abode just to keep them going. Surely, the incident made these people create a positive environment despite their geographical alienation from home, literally and figuratively, of the moment.

The unfaltering unity their leader, Luis Urzula instilled and maintained through and through added more icing than the normal. In situations like this, factionalism may have ensued; unwanted or provoked attempt to disorganize the esprit de corps this team has prior to the incident would have even surfaced. But their oneness outstood and outbested human frailties, biases and indifferences. Certainly, survival of the fittest or even of the unfit would have dictated their psyche; it has indisputably driven their will to exist when the going got tough.

Mario Sepulveda, 40, the second of the Chilean 33 who was shafted up said: “I have been with God and with the devil. I seized the hand of God, it was the best hand. I always knew God would get us out of there.” This is (was) faith expressed in a tone suggestive of stern belief that he will survive; that they will survive.

The ordeal of being alienated from their loved ones for seventy days would have caused them to stay breathless underground; the ordeal of being alienated from the beautiful creation for seventy days would have caused them to remain hopeless underground. Had it not due to their belief to survive, they would not have tasted the freedom and enjoyed the sweet embrace of their loved ones; life would have been aborted at the instance they allowed themselves to be succumbed by the monster called death.

But they remained steadfast; faith has saved them without a doubt.

And what added surprise to the rescue drama was the presence of Sebastian Pinera, the President of Chile who insisted to become one of the witnesses of the rescue operations. He was amazing; he was not being political; he was true to the calling of the position whose mandate came from the constituents of his country the Chilean 33 included.

Historians should correct me now when I say that the same act from a Philippine president or from any political figure in general was never done before; definitely, it will never be done unless he is seeking refuge from the entire Filipino community for an electoral favor.

The story of Sonia Roco, the wife of the former senator Raul Roco, along with other survivors of the Hyatt Baguio Hotel rubbles following the earthquake that shocked not only the Philippines but the entire world as well was as spellbinding as the story of the Chilean 33 sans the customized iron capsule called Phoenix. Sonia Roco and other survivors were rescued after days of manual works; the Chilean 33 were saved after detailed planning and careful execution; a plan that resulted to a well-thought of recommendations by NASA.

Debatably though, we Filipinos have been trapped, literally and figuratively, more than two-thousand feet underground: The three-hundred-thirty-year reign of the aristocratic Kingdom of Spain whose intensity caused tribal Filipinos to wage war is more shivering than the Chilean drama; the terror-faced Japanese control whose physical and sexual abuses sent tribal Filipinos to psychological and reality-based death is more quaking than the Chilean drama; the twenty-year reign of the greatest dictator to have lived on earth that led Filipinos to orchestrate a guerilla movement called New People’s Army (NPA) is more shuddering than the Chilean drama; the eleven-year reign of the petite lady who championed scams and scandals, re-defined and espoused public-condemned Marcos dictatorship is as shaking as the Chilean drama.

Without a doubt, we will still be trapped under more than two-thousand feet under all circumstances if we do not re-define the unique Filipino resiliency, re-conquer the EDSA 1-inspired unity, or re-embrace the uniquely Filipino faith this time.

It has to be now or be trapped underground once more.