Bishop Soc’s encounter with a stingray

The Prelate of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa was stung by a sting ray and temporarily disabled. CBCP

On July 17, 2023, I was chatting with Most Rev Soc Mesiona, MSP, Bishop of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, who was stranded in a faraway island of Cagayancillo, a 6th-class municipality in the province of Palawan. Cagayancillo is located between the islands of Palawan and Negros in the vast Sulu Sea.

He was made Prelate of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa in 2017, and since then his strong leadership matched with genuine care for his flock has made him very close to the hearts of the Palaweños. This small prelature takes care of 32 parishes and 3 chaplaincies.

Simplicity is one of his notable characters and part of simplicity, I guess, is being “stranded on an island called Cagayancillo due to bad weather and being physically disabled temporarily” because of a close and dangerous encounter with a stingray.

Steve Irwin known as “The Crocodile Hunter” came to mind. Irwin – the famous Australian zookeeper, wildlife educator, and television personality – met his end at the hands of a stingray while filming a documentary off the coast of Queensland.

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I asked the good bishop if I needed to worry since many of his constituents in Puerto Princesa by this time were worried. I asked him if he could narrate his story and he said yes.

“What comes to my mind when I hear the word stingray (pagi in Filipino),” he recounted what happened, “is a dried stingray or buwad, which I liked to eat when I was young.”

“Or, it also brings back memories of the scare tactic my father would use if I did something wrong. Malatos jud kag ikog sa pagi kung dili ka magpanton (You will be whipped with the stingray’s tail if you would not shape up).

“Growing up in the hinterland of Bohol deprived me of the opportunity to have a personal encounter with a live stingray. Not until I went to a beach here in Cagayancillo last July 13 when I happened to step on a stingray that I was literally whipped by its tail.

“At first, I thought a crab had bitten me because I felt a bladed living creature trying to inflict a wound on my left foot. But the local people who were with me said that it was a stingray.

“I tried to calm down until I got out of the water, but I already felt a different feeling. I could feel that the venom excreted by the stingray into my left foot was beginning to spread upward as I felt an indescribable pain and numbness in my left leg.

“I began to worry because I know that venom, which the local people call dalat, can be fatal. I was fortunate that Melizza, a Coast Guard officer and nurse by background, was with us. She was in town as an invited guest speaker to address this year’s graduates of her alma mater.

“Melizza immediately applied a tourniquet to stop the venom from spreading. Then, somebody from the group handed a black stone-like object, which they say comes from the horn of a deer, to Melizza which is believed to be an antidote to the stingray’s venom. The local people know this well.

“The black stone-like object, which is called bara in the local language, is believed to sip the venom out of my body. And true enough for as soon as the bara was placed on top of the wound that I felt a soothing feeling wherein the venom seemed to have stopped from spreading.

But the after-effect of the wound is a challenging one especially when you are on an island where medicine is scarce. Different traditional medicine and healing have been introduced. Right now, a few days after, I am still nursing the pain with bouts of fever from time to time. I hope and pray I will recover fully in time for my trip back to Puerto Princesa.”

Most Rev. Socrates Mesiona, MSP, is the Bishop of Puerto Princesa Prelature  and one of the Bishop Advisors of the Love Our Pope Movement. Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is the author of “Church Reforms – Semper Purificanda” Volume One (Claretian, 2023).