TRAVEL REPORT

Official Travel to Badeo, Kibungan, Benguet

April 24 to 28, 2007

Kibungan is popularly known in the province of Benguet as “Switzerland of Benguet because of its green and rocky mountains. Deep ravines and cliffs separate and isolate many sitios and barangays.

Because of this geographical characteristics, many sitios are hardly reached by regular social services and provision of electricity is one big problem.

It is for this reason that the Igorot Global Organization identified this municipality as recipient of 20 communal solar home systems to be installed by the PNOC. Particularly, they identified the barangays of Badeo and Tacadang.

Badeo is one of the farthest barangay of Kibungan. It’s nearest sitio, Tableo can be reached via four-hour hike from the nearest road. On the otherhand, Tacadang can only be reached after a seven-hour hike. They have about 200 and 400 households, respectively.

The PNOC personnel, Antonio G. Buenviaje, Reynaldo Castillo and driver Richard Labao left Manila on April 24, 2007 bringing with them in their vehicle 10 units of SHS. SSPC personnel, Leo Dacumos has the other 10 units in the SSPC vehicle. A night was spent in Baguio City to ensure that the team will reach Kibungan in the morning when the barangay people are already there to haul the SHS.

The team was joined by Mr. Abe Sarol and two technicans who will be the one to do the installations as well as by the IGO coordinator in the area, Mr. Sidney Marines.

The team left Baguio City and arrived at Kibungan Municipal Hall at around 10:00 AM of April 25, 2007. A short briefing of the beneficiaries were conducted by Mr. Buenviaje and Mr. Dacumos. The briefing was attended by Barangay Captains Teodoro G. Donglay of Tacadang and Bestre A. Domes of Badeo and some thirty of their officials and constituents. After the briefing, the systems were divided into the two barangays and the hauling started. For the nine units allocated to Barangay Tacadang, the systems were initially left in the PNOC vehicle parked in the municipal hall due to the absence of enough manpower. It was later transferred to the poblacion house of Mr. Tony Tibiao, also a resident of Tacadang. For the eleven (11) units allocated to Barangay Badeo, it was delivered by the vehicles in Barangay Saddle where the people are already waiting to haul the units to Badeo. Actual hauling started at 4:30 PM. About 30 able-bodied residents carried the components of the SHS to Badeo from Saddle.

It was decided that the Team will conduct the installations in Badeo before going to Tacadang considering the distance of the two barangays and the timing of the hauling. Hence, the team proceeded to Sitio Tableo to install two units of SHS in the Tableo Barrio School and one unit in the Day Care Center. The first group arrived at 10:30 in the evening after about 5 hours of walking, while other spent the night on the trail and waited till the morning before proceeding to Badeo.

The morning after, the first SHS was installed in the elementary school. Installation of the first unit was completed at around 11:30 while installation of the second unit was started to be installed at 1:00 PM.

The PNOC team after witnessing the first installation decided to return to Saddle. They arrived Saddle at 6:30 PM and drove to Baguio City on the same night.

The next day the PNOC Team returned to the Office arriving at 5:00 PM.

Submitted:

Antonio G. Buenviaje Reynaldo A. Castillo

Noted:

V. S. Bala