The Cebu provincial government’s disaster management office is recommending a temporary suspension of canyoneering and other extreme sports in Alegria town and other parts of Cebu pending a review of its safety guidelines.
“I will suggest to the Provincial Board to halt all extreme outdoor activities that involve rapelling, spelunking, caving, rock wall climbing and canyoneering. Ceasefire for one two months because Cebu is famous for adventure sports. It has a lot of secrets,” said Baltazar Tribunalo Jr., disaster risk management chief.
This arose from last Saturday’s death of canyoneering guide Aldrin Carba, who drowned in the river while accompanyin a group of foreign and local guests along the town’s river trail despite bad weather.
The accident prompted another group of 15 local guests from Cebu City to cancel their canyoneering tour yesterday, two months after they scheduled it.
John Belle Ortega, a 22-year-old tour guide of barangay Matutinao, Badian town, southwest Cebu who disclosed the cancellation to Cebu Daily News, said the incident will impact heavily on his livelihood.
Safety
“We had to agree because we also have to think of our own safety especially now with the stormy weather,” Ortega said.
Tribunalo, who led the search and rescue operation for Carba, said the local guide lacked safety gear.
The canyoneering trail in southern Cebu starts in Malabuyoc town where water from the mountains starts to flow to Alegria and ends in Kawasan Falls in Badian town.
To finish the trail, one must pass through both rocky mountains and rivers, some as deep as two to three-story buildings.
Tribunalo said Carba was may have been “overconfident: when he decided to jump in the Canlaob River after facilitating the tour for 22 tourists despite the bad weather and strong river current.
Three local residentsMansueto Purgatorio, Epifanio Purgatorio and Nestor Purgatorio from barangay Compostela in Alegria -found Carba’s remains at 4:15 p.m. last Sunday. /With Correspondent Michelle Joy L. Padayhag
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