It hasn’t stopped raining in this Mountain Province town for 24 years

by Ardelle Costuna

(Eagle of Kolbe/Flickr/https://flic.kr/p/a2MvcU)

 

Nothing can stop the rain from pouring in this town in Mountain Province, even if Sta. Clara’s devotees give her an unlimited supply of raw chicken eggs.

The 12,000 Igorots from Natonin, Mountain Province have not experienced summer for 24 years now. Children have given up their hopes of playing outside, because the rain clouds refuse to listen to their plea of coming again another day. (They should probably learn Sarah Geronimo’s sun dance. Or not.)

Natives have also given up their rituals to stop the rainfall that has been taking toll on the area’s farmlands.

Town Mayor Matteo Chiyawan couldn’t do anything but feel sorry for his constituents, “No development because of the rain. I pity our people for being exposed to too much rain,” he told the Manila Standard Today.

But it isn’t always gloomy on this side of the province: the sun pays a visit four times a month for about three hours.

Due to rainy weather all year long, the local government of the fourth-class town could not put up infrastructure such as schools and roads on the soft ground, since Natonin is located along the slopes of the Cordillera mountains.

 

 

Chiyawan said too much water in the soil makes it difficult for workers to make the land compact, hence making it more prone to soil erosions and landslides.

And because of this, people take several hours to travel to the provincial capital Bontoc via the 74-kilometer muddy national highway on the side of the mountain. The town’s agricultural production has also suffered since sunlight is almost nonexistent in their place, resulting to rotting grain.

Despite too much rain brought by the surrounding rain forests in the area, people have other means of livelihood, such as fishing eels and hunting wild boars and deer. The town’s rivers also make a suitable place for mini-hydroelectric powerplants, which may provide additional employment opportunities to locals.

Mountain Province Gov. Leonard Mayaen said that the provincial government is prepared with heavy equipment in case landslides happen.