Philippines: When the mountain rumbles - The roads of the impossible

00:00 Not so long ago on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, some tribes clashed in bloody battles. The winner brought back the head of his enemy as a trophy to pay homage to him. These wars took place far from civilization, towards the high peaks of the cordillera where hundreds of small villages are hidden.
02:11 The road of the head cutters
14:30 A motorcycle taxi company
27:29 Sweat as pay
30:52 Tabuk's healer
36:09 A jeepney, the 4x4 bus
39:02 Gold mines
47:13 The Kili Kili Power
To put an end to these conflicts and restore state authority, the Philippine government decided to build a road between Bontoc and Tabuk, the two major cities in the north. Titanic works began more than a hundred years ago and yet the road today only looks like a track. It is called the road of the Kalingas, the road of the head cutters. Every day, Christopher the foreman tries with his diggers to open the road and every night the mountain covers part of it. Thousands of cubic meters of earth and rocks that carry away everything in their path. The next day, if the machines have not been buried by the flows, you have to start all over again. The kalingas is indeed an important economic axis. Bus drivers take all the risks to bring their lots of passengers to their destination. It takes almost a day if all goes well to cover the 90 kilometers. There is no state line, all buses are private. Ed owns and drives a bus over twenty years old that pitches dangerously. Without the skills of the driver, the bus could overturn in the ravine at any moment, as happens too often. Fernando is a route setter. He removes every stone that hinders their path. But, above all, to avoid being carried away by a landslide, he scans the mountain. At the slightest stone, at the slightest sign of landslide, Fernando stops the bus. Some very isolated villages are inaccessible. You then have to walk for long hours or take a motorcycle taxi to get to your destination. Watari and his extreme bikers are fearless. It is without helmets and in flip-flops that they transport travelers and their goods. This road to the impossible is also the path taken by thousands of people to meet Santino. This man is said to have the extraordinary gift of making the handicapped walk and of curing serious illnesses. According to him, he can even wake the dead with miraculous water. This bus also carries adventurers with their dreams of wealth. At the top of the mountains are gold mines...
Location: Panama, South America
Producer: Tony Comiti, France5
Authors: Jérémy Defalt, Richard Montrobert