by Antonio M. Ajero
SAN ISIDRO, Davao Oriental – In this rustic seaside town, location of the now world famous “bonsai” mountain, Mt. Hamiguitan, the inevitable fate of an old ambulance unit gone rickety is that of turning into a funeral car.
This in fact is exactly what happened to the first ambulance given in 1995 by then President Fidel V. Ramos to this municipality of 32,000 as a reward for its earning the status of being home to the Most Outstanding Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council (MDCC) in the country.
After saving countless San Isidro lives in 24/7 emergency service for 18 years, the ambulance succumbed to wear and tear to the point that it could no longer rush an emergency patient to a hospital in time.
“As a result, the municipal council decided to decommission the once speedy ambulance and convert it into a sedate-moving government funeral car,” said municipal secretary Lito Catog, half-jokingly.
A much later model ambulance acquired by the municipality from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office that replaced the first one is itself already 13 years old, even “looking much older that its age” after having rushed countless times the more serious cases to hospitals.
With this decrepit unit about to become another funeral hearse before it ends up as scrap iron, only one ambulance will be left to do what comes naturally to such machines – taking emergency patients to the nearest hospital, a primary one, 17 kilometers away from the center of this “gulf town,” — so-called because it is one of four Davao Oriental towns abutting portions of the mighty Davao Gulf. The nearest tertiary hospital is a good 35 kilometers away.
So, when Rotarians from Japan and Davao City came to this town last Saturday to formally turn over a spanking brand new ambulance unit worth P1 million, there was much to-do. After the usual donor-donee signing, handshaking and speech-making ritual, the guests and the hosts feasted at the food-laden long table, as the occasion incidentally was also the birthday of the town mayor.
The new ambulance, a Kia K2700 truck fitted with technical equipment and provided emergency kit, was formally – and happily, no doubt — received by San Isidro mayor Apolinar Q. Ruelo Sr. from leaders of the Rotary Club of Wakanayagi, Japan, under Rotary International (RI) District 2520, and the Rotary Club of East Davao in Davao City, under RI District 3860. The turnover was the culmination of a number of years of fund-sourcing and paperwork by the two Rotary clubs under The Rotary Foundation (TRF) matching grant No. 71099.
Ruelo received the vehicle from RC Wakanayagi president, Dr. Atsushi Sasaki, and RC East Davao president, Ronald C. Go, in the presence of Davao City-based Japanese Consul Yoshiyuki Isoda and RI 3860 District Governor Antonio Veneracion.
The powerhouse delegation of Japanese and Filipino Rotarians included Madame Yumiko, spouse of Dr. Sasaki, RC Wakanayagi immediate past president (IPP) Takehiko Sasaki, past district governor Reynaldo “Boy” Reyes, 11 past presidents, and assistant district governors Riezl Reyes and Vir Sojor, and current RC East Davao club officers.
The delegation included prominent RC East Davao members who are from San Isidro: Arthur “Bobby” Ang of R.S. Autosphere, lawyer Anton Banzali, who notarized the deed of donation, and former Davao City administrator Nestor “Butch” Ledesma, who first broached the idea of the life-saving donation when he was still the club’ vice president, with San Isidro vice mayor Edgar Saulon.
The turnover was witnessed by Davao Oriental provincial board member Tina B. Yu and husband Feliciano, both former mayors of San Isidro, members of the Sangguniang Bayan and other officials of the municipal government.
No other ambulance in the world was more honored by the presence of an array of distinguished personalities — of two countries, no less — such as this Kia K2700, that it could hardly wait to pick up its first victim of a hit-and-run or whatever to prove that it deserved all that attention.
House of Joy
On its way to Davao City, the delegation dropped by the House of Joy, an orphanage run by Itsuo Karasuyama, former staffer of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), who was smitten with the idyllic town and a country lass named Aida, younger sister of board member Yu. The feeling must have been mutual for the two ended up as husband and wife. But that’s another story probably waiting to be told.
