Willie N Ng
DALE Abenojar, accused of faking his claim as the first Filipino to conquer Mt. Everest, is on the verge of embarrassing his detractors with his stranger-than-fiction saga.
Leo Oracion and Pastour Emata, who reached the Everest summit in May 17 and 18, were well financed by ABS-CBN. Romeo Garduce, who reached the summit a day later, was sponsored by the rival TV network GMA-7.
They were backed by support crews and trained on ice-covered mountains.
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Abenojar saw snow for the first time when he started his climb. He had no money, suffered from frost bite which soon degenerated to gangrene and he took the more difficult north face to reach the summit on May 15, two days ahead of Oracion.
Oracion and company came home to national acclaim. Abenojar arrived amid a swelter of brickbats.
The doctor in the Oracion camp called Abenojar’s certificate issued by the Mountaineering Association of Tibet of the Autonomous Region of China "dubious." He accused the two Sherpas Abenojar brought to Manila of being bribed to lie for him.
He doubted there was gangrene on Abenojar’s big toe and on His Sherpa’s nine toes. Two days later, the ten toes were amputated.
While Oracion and his group cast doubt on Abenojar’s feat, Ms. Elisabeth Howsley, the octogenarian chronicler of Mt. Everest, declared that based on the evidence she saw, plus testimony from other climbers, she knew he made it to the summit.
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"Seize the moment," Chairman Mao’s oft-quoted advice, should bestir ABC, the network that could only envy the Mt. Everest successes of ABS-CBN and GMA-7.
Since the two big networks do not want to have anything to do with Abenojar, ABC can step in and claim him as its own.
Without spending for a full-scale expedition to the Himalayas, ABC can share the glory of the first Filipino to conquer Mt. Everest who did it on a shoestring budget, with hardly any preparation, ending up with the amputation of one big toe.
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