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pzerolaris
listing. a writing process. a ship's demise.
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A Hero Retires
by Yas D. Ocampo
The untrained eye would need years of training to know the difference between a flat iron and an improvised explosive device.
The trained eye would need time and still be unsure. Think, for a second, about a tightly-sealed container, uncertainties and possible booby-traps.
Spike, Davao City's pioneer bomb-sniffer, would just need to go near a suspicious device and find out if the situation was a 'positive,' meaning that a bomb was in the said container.
Where humans rely on technical expertise, Spike would rely on one thing we don't have, together with a focused training on the field: a heightened sense of smell.
And this was what happened eight years ago, when Spike found a bomb inside an LCI bus. According to his handler, this is how it is done: a tandem of personnel from the Explosives and Ordnance Division is sent with a dog like Spike, trained to immediately crouch upon detecting explosives.
“Kuyaw kaayo to na bomba,” recalled SPO1 Fidel del Rio, “Del” to his team-mates. “Ang gisudlan ato kay karton sa plantsa, unya ang explosive kay ang plantsa mismo (The bomb was disguised as a flat-iron, placed inside a box, the iron being hte explosive itself.)” The improvised explosive, he said, would have injured a lot of passengers with its cast iron shrapnel, killing some of them instantly had Spike not detected it.
Spike has spent what to humans would be 91 years, at 13 years old, counting 7 human years to one dog year. Most of these years were spent serving the city. Spike retired this week after 12 years of service.
“Kumpleto ang talent ni Spike!” del Rio shared. “Pero ang specialty niya: bomb-sniffing (Spike has a lot of talents. His specialty is bomb sniffing.)” The Belgian malinois has protected the city from explosives countless times.
On March 11, 2003, around 9:00 pm, Spike found an explosive inside a passenger multicab. At a checkpoint in Magallanes Street, Spike sat after sniffing through a plastic container inside the jeep. The vehicle's driver, Temoteo Hedanio, would later report to investigators that five suspicious-looking men may have brought the container with them when they flagged the vehicle at the Matina intersection. The men disappeared into unknown directions when checkpoint personnel approached the vehicle.
Police later said that although an igniter pressurized the device to explode, it could not go off since it had no battery. Spike saved the city from a would-be terrorist activity.
Spike has had his share of the city's yearly celebrations and special events – always on patrol during the Araw ng Dabaw and Kadayawan Festivals, as well as visits from national officials.
When we visited Spike at the Davao Central Police Office, his comrades greeted us with barks that boomed within the kennel's walls. Huge dogs, I thought. Two cells from Spike's, a suspicious Snappy, a German shepherd who does drug-detection, kept barking as photographer Rene Lumawag leaned close to the bars to take Spike's photo inside his 'room.'
The malinois would find it hard, however, to begin sitting down or standing up. I could see how difficult it was for him to shift between these stances: it would always be a struggle, his 13 year old bones barely able to support his own weight with those transitions, a heartbreaking sight for the dog-lover in me.
By the base of Spike's right hind legs was also a small cyst that's been growing over the years. Del said there was nothing they could do about it anymore. The trainers at the SATU keep him happy, though.
“Kung 'negative' gani ang search,” Del shared, referring to search operations where Spike would find no explosives on the site, “i-recalibrate dayon nako na siya.” Del Rio said that dogs have attitudes too. “Pasimhuton nako siya ug kanang dapat pangitaon basta naay search, para maganahan siya, (If the search is a 'negative,' I'd have him sniff on an item he is supposed to search to keep him satisfied,)” he said, referring to parts of explosives that canines are trained to detect. Del would then give him a treat after each detection, either a piece of meat or a chew toy.
During idle times, Del would ask Spike to bring him stuff from from another table. The dog would just look where his handler would point, fetch the object with his mouth, and place it gently in front of where Del sat.
Spike loved his work, it would seem. Who wouldn't? The pay was good: shelter, food, and fun in one. His work was easy: all he had to do was sniff where told, exercise and rest in between. And the people around him were adventurers: Del being only one of three handlers who worked with him at the SATU. There is health care, too: the City Veterinarian's office monitors him.
The kind of care given to this aging hero of a dog befitted him. His handlers would take him to walks at dawn and late afternoons, to protect him from the heat of the sun. Del prefers dawn for 'Spike time,' making sure humans, few to none, are around to distract him.
I imagine Spike walking around the City Police Office during each 'Spike time' – his adventurous self sniffing the ground with his doggy instincts.
I think it is indeed about time that Spike receives his R&R (rest and recreation.) It is a salute that this hero deserves from the city, one he spent his lifetime protecting.
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After walking for two weeks, ‘Journey Max’ and his six dogs get a boat ride home
What endears strangers to an old man like Max is his utter lack of any need for pity. Walking along the road from General Santos, Max’s pushcart only bore the words “Journey Max,” his full name, and his prayer of a route painted in huge letters.
TAGUM CITY(MindaNews/24 March) – A septuagenarian who had planned to walkfrom General Santos City to Ormoc in Leyte with his six dogs has obtained a free ride home with help from a dog owners association and the city government here.
Max de Lima, 72, had started the long walk back to the place he left around 50 years ago, but his plight caught the attention of netizens. (The nearest point from Mindanao to Leyte is the Lipata port in Surigao City.)
Mercy Bontilao, vice president of the Tagum Dog Owners Association, said in an interview Thursday at Tagum’s Rotary Park that they reached out to Max, through friends and strangers at the Facebook page of Davao City’s Public Safety and Security Command Center Support Group.
Bontilao said they started hearing about the man she endearingly calls “Tatay Max,” from people who saw him in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur and Toril, in Davao City.
Max met up with his family at Ormoc over the weekend with the help of Tagum City’s local government unit.
“The LGU here lent us a van that we could use to transport Tatay Max and his dogs to the port,” Bontilao said.
Edwin Lasquite, officer in charge at the Tagum City Information Office, said in an email Wednesday night that Max made a courtesy call at Mayor Allan Rellon’s office Tuesday.
Netizens in Davao and nearby areas heard about Tatay Max during the Araw ng Dabaw festivities last Monday. He was seen at Toril main highway as well as at the main parade route downtown.
Max carried with him all of his only possessions — pots, pails, pans, and tarps for the rain.
“The dogs and I were lucky that it hasn’t rained since we started walking,” Max said.
The old man and his dogs had been walking since March 9, passing through main highways and getting occasional rest stops.
There was no rain but Max’s journey was not without tragedy. While walking along the rough roads of Baluyan, four of Max’s 10 dogs fell to their deaths off a cliff. “It was dark, I could not save them.”
He said he tried looking for Kaloy, Agaton, Barok and Ondoy in the morning, but they were nowhere to be found, possibly swept by the rapids of the river below.
What endears strangers to an old man like Max is his utter lack of any need for pity. Walking along the road from General Santos, Max’s pushcart only bore the words “Journey Max,” his full name, and his prayer of a route painted in huge letters.
Asked what he did for a living, it was clear that what he has done since 2011 was not for himself but for the dogs he considers family. Max rummaged through trash bins and sells recyclable items to buy two kilograms of rice or corn grain.
Such is his routine: look for cans or pieces of metal, sell these at a junk shop, buy rice, and cooks it for the 10 dogs. “I usually just leave just a handful for myself,” Max said, gesturing with his fingers. “Everything is OK with salt.”
On better days, Max says the dogs would feast on leftover barbecue bones from the patrons near the Bulaong Terminal in General Santos, where he also stayed.
Even with the way the old man walked with his dogs, one could easily see the loyalty he has earned. At night, his dogs would surround him and in his absence let out cries of longing.
As MindaNews did the interview, each dog’s personality became readily apparent. Bolantoy, for example, acts as the alpha male. Max treats the two-year old male as his right hand. Marimar acts as second in command, even as she is the mother of all of Max’s dogs. Pablo, a white pup, is the youngest at four months old. Yolanda, Bulantok, and Dionesia all take turns playing around and act as scouts.
Max, obviously, is their pack leader, with the dogs readily at his beck and call.
Bontilao said the dogs were so obedient that they sat still at Max’s bark when they needed to meet Mayor Rellon at City Hall. “He just told them ‘puyo!’, and they did just that, stay still.”
Perhaps to the surprise of others, each of Tatay Max’s dogs are not only obedient, they are also vaccinated, with Tatay Max having scheduled each dog at the city veterinarian.
Max shifted from nice and gentle to those interviewing him one moment, to being firm and aggressive the next, which explains the way he kept the dogs in check.
Tatay Max said he decided to come home to Ormoc because he did not want to die in a place where he had no relatives.
However, Max’s fate in Ormoc may not be as certain. He said his relatives there might no longer know him, as he left the place around 50 years ago.
Since then, he has traveled from Manila to Palawan, Ozamiz City to Cagayan de Oro City, making a living by selling toys and ball pens wherever he was.
It was in 2008 when he moved to General Santos, where he would stay up until March this year.
He has had at least four generations of dogs since 2011, but this was the first time he became famous. In General Santos, Tatay Max is popular with locals who are amused with the way the dogs follow him around.
He has since capitalized on this, with each dog having a colorful bandana wrapped around their necks. “I did this for fun,” he said. “I noticed that people liked my dogs.”
While waiting for the trip to Ormoc, Tatay Max confided he didn’t know what awaits him there. He said his relatives there might not know him given his long absence.
“Another family has already bought our land there,” he said. “I hope I can convince them to let me stay where my family used to live.” (MindaNews)
Read more http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2015/03/24/after-walking-for-two-weeks-journey-max-and-his-six-dogs-get-a-boat-ride-home/
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One of the ballrooms here is being prepped for a LEGO-themed bday party. Squeeeee
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The pink sands of Sta. Cruz Island, Zamboanga City, from another angle.
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Because Thursday. #throwbackthursday
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Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte meets with residents and students at the Wireless Cemetery, where his mother, Nanay Soling, lies. It is her second death anniversary.
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"quoyle - a coil of rope only one layer thick... so that it may be walked on." -Proulx, quoting The Ashley Book of Knots. #theshippingnews #literature #books
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Transcript
Her: "Thanks for being around."
Him: "I guess my tragedy's that I'll always be there."
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Stranger. Silhouette.
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