Bus Full of Dreamers

Coming from Tagaytay City, where I facilitated a retreat, I went straight to the terminal of Florida Bus Company in Sampaloc, Manila, where I met Dino Dimar and friends. They were painting a wall mural at the Carmelite Sisters Ladies Dormitory, just across the bus terminal. It has been four months last June 7, 2014 since the bus accident involving the Florida Bus Company happened in Bontoc, Mountain Province. Fifteen passengers died and about thirty others were injured when the bus fell off a ravine. Included in the fatalities was David Sicam, a volunteer of the Dominican Mission in the Babuyan Islands. He was travelling with his family and a group of friends, most of whom were artists, including Tado Jimenez, who also perished in the accident.

Dino had asked permission from the sisters’ group to paint a mural on the wall outside their dormitory building. The sisters did not approve his request to actually paint on the wall. Instead, he was given permission to install wood panels on the wall with the mural paintings. Dino was one of those who survived the accident. He was a graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Santo Tomas. He was lucky enough to have survived the accident with a few shoulder and leg injuries. He wanted to remind the public of the importance of road safety to avoid further similar accidents. He and his fellow survivors thought of doing it by means of a wall mural.

It was fine weather that afternoon, not too sunny and not cloudy either that would entertain any chances of rain. Quite a number of artists and friends showed up for the event that they called “Biyaheng Pagbabago” Street Art Painting. Among them were some of the survivors themselves and their families and friends. They painted on plywood panels installed on the two walls right across the bus terminal. On one wall were paintings of positive messages related to vehicular safety like “We follow the law”, “We check our vehicles”, “We drive safely”, “Isang paglalakbay na ligtas”, and “Sumunod sa Batas”. At the other wall they painted giant portraits of the fatalities from David and Tado’s group. The words “Bus Full of Dreamers” were written above the wall, and below it “Protect and Defend Life”. All the portraits of six young men from David and Tado’s group who perished from the accident were depicted as smiling, including David and Tado. According to Dino and his friends, it was their way of healing the memory of a tragic accident. It was a way to let out their emotions in a creative,  positive way; channeling their fear, anger, loss, hope and unrest into something that can help heal, bond, calm and assure. They would like to remember because they don’t want people to forget; because they don’t want it to happen again.

I stayed for a couple of hours with Dino’s group, some of whom have visited our mission in the Babuyan Islands last year as volunteers. After I left, they continued to paint and finished the murals, probably just about before midnight. A few days after that, I got a call from Dino informing me that the panel boards with the paintings of the “Bus Full of Dreamers” was gone. Who could have removed the boards with the mural paintings that Dino and his group had installed right across the bus terminal of GV Florida Bus Company? Whoever did it just goes to show their irreverence and disrespect for life.