Sunday, December 02, 2007 Doctor dies in cave accident By Jovy S. Taghoy Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A 39-YEAR-OLD doctor died while exploring a cave in Barangay Gaas in the western town of Balamban, Cebu.
Dr. Adolph Espina II, an ophthalmologist, was with five other spelunkers when he fell into an estimated 60-meter-deep pit inside a vertical cave last Friday.
It took rescuers 17 hours to get Espina’s body out of the cave.
Mertz Certifico, the team’s designated spokesman, and Gelina Asis clarified an earlier report that four of the members of the team were trapped inside the cave.
“We were never trapped. We made the decision to stay with him (Espina) until the rescue group could reach us and pull him out of the cave. We could have climbed our way out of the cave. It’s just that we stayed with him because we could not afford to leave him inside,” Asis said in a press conference past 5 p.m. yesterday.
Both Certifico and Asis said it was an accident.
The six-member team was made up of Certifico, Asis, Espina and his relative Kublai Espina, Ursulo “Dondon” Dimpas and American Charles Festersen.
They were inside the cave to do a survey and mapping of the area, which is believed to be more than 100 meters deep and potentially one of the deepest vertical caves in the Philippines.
The team belongs to Speleological Cebu, a founding member of the National Caving Association-Philippine Speleological Society.
Asis said the team was divided into two. One group— comprising Dimpas, Certifico and Kublai—was the “push” team that took charge of rigging the ropes. The other group was the survey team—composed of Espina, Festersen and Asis.
The three-day exploration was to wind up today.
Hardware failure
Certifico said the team descended the cave local residents call “Bito” at 9 a.m. last Friday. They coordinated with barangay officials.
Certifico said the accident happened in pitch two of the cave around 6 p.m. when the survey team started to descend.
After Asis descended, Espina followed.
Based on the team’s assessment of what happened to Espina, Certifico said it was a failure of the hardware called carabiner that Adolph used.
“The carabiner that supported his descender broke. The weakest load of the carabiner, which was on his lock, got in contact with Doc’s body and it tripped off, which we believed probably caused the accident,” he said.
Certifico and Asis pointed out that all the members of the team are professional and highly-trained spelunkers.
Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo said that although the accident happened in Balamban, about 64 kilometers from the city, City Hall sent Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation personnel to assist.
The cave was unexplored, Balamban Mayor Alex Binghay said in a separate interview.
Exploration
He revealed that the group of spelunkers who went to the cave Friday morning was in town months ago to conduct an initial check.
“They were there for documentation. After the exploration, they planned to tell the people what’s down there,” Binghay said.
After Espina’s fall, Asis, Dimpas and Kublai opted to stay behind while Certifico and Festersen went outside the cave to get help from barangay and town officials and Cebu City rescue teams.
Rescuers from the University of San Carlos Mountaineers, Team Habagat of Ramon Vidal, the Central Visayas Search and Rescue (Cevsar), Cebu City fire brigade, the Philippine Air Force, Inter-Mountaineering Society and Federation of Visayas Radio Clubs rushed to the area.
Balamban officials led by the mayor and his son, Vice Mayor Ace Binghay, also went to the area to arrange for food, bottled water and other provisions needed in the operation.
The rescue operation started about 10 p.m. Friday and lasted past 4 p.m. yesterday.
Espina’s body was lifted out of the cave past 11 a.m., about 17 hours after the accident.
Asis climbed out of the cave past 2 p.m. Two hours later, Dimpas and Kublai followed.
Conservation
During the press conference after the rescue operation, Asis, when asked if they will still continue with the exploration said, “Our main aim is cave conservation. As long as there will be caves, we will continue with our cause.”
But she said it will take time for them because they still need to recover from the tragedy that befell their teammate.
She said the team has been doing speleological expeditions since 1998.
The area where the cave lies is about 500 meters away from the main road of Barangay Gaas proper, or about a 10- to 15-minute walk uphill.
Vice Mayor Ace told Sun.Star Cebu that the cave is part of a protected area declared by a local government ordinance.
The eco-tourism area covers the barangays of Gaas and the neighboring Magsaysay.
He said the ordinance has been sent to the Provincial Board and they are only waiting for its approval so that funding could be provided to safeguard the eco-tourism areas.
Because of the accident, the younger Binghay said he is planning to strictly implement a policy that requires all climbers, cavers and mountaineers to coordinate with local officials so that guides could be provided for them. (With MBG/RHM)
