Baguio City and Benguet Province Isolated
October 12th — Death toll is rising from 214 in Benguet alone as of October 10th and multiple roads washed out… Baguio City (The Summer Capital of the Philippines) and La Trinidad Benguet (Salad Bowl of the Northern Philippines) is now impassable.
Phone lines cut, mobile communication intermittent, down internet connection, most streets blocked — these had put us in work standby mode for days.
Being in isolation state, the whole province is running out of gas supply with prices of commodities skyrocketing. With the province inaccessible, vegetable prices in Manila, capital of the Philippines, has also tripled and even quadrupled.
The rising number of deaths caused the province to lack supply of caskets. With the president’s visit, she was airlifted to the nearby province to personally order supply of caskets to be transported to Benguet. This has however, eased the families of the victims in giving their loved ones a formal burial.
Relief goods from the government are however, airlifted to the province. Civilians also flocked the municipal hall bringing in donations in kind to the victims.
BACKGROUND:
Baguio City is dubbed as the “Summer Capital of The Philippines” due to its climate. In order to reach La Trinidad Benguet, people have to passed by Baguio City which is 20 minutes away from La Trinidad town.
Benguet is one of the primary source of vegetables which are transported to different parts of Luzon, primarily to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. This is the reason why vegetables’ prices jumps up when Benguet is inaccessible.
La Trinidad, Benguet is also dubbed as the “Salad Bowl of the Philippines”. It’s main attraction is the farming of strawberries which is one of the few in the country. With the vast hectares of fields, aside from strawberries… lettuce, cabbage, carrots, brocolli, cauli flower and salad vegetables are also planted.
Photo to the left is the view of the flooded “Salad Bowl” field with hectares of crops to be harvested ruined. The shot is taken from our apartment. Click on photo to enlarge.
