Kenney Visits Cebu

MABUHAY SI ROMY GARDUCE SA PAG-AKYAT NIYA NG LIGTAS SA MT. EVEREST! MABUHAY ANG PILIPINO, MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS!

ABS-CBN News: A third Filipino climber on Friday raised the country's flag atop Mount Everest in Nepal, ANC reported.

Romeo Garduce made it to the mountain’s summit at 11 a.m. (1 p.m. in Manila), the report said.
Garduce was the third Filipino to reach the Everest's peak in less than a week. He followed in the footsteps of Heracleo "Leo" Oracion and Erwin "Pastour" Emata.

Oracion became the first Filipino on Wednesday to summit the 8,848-meter mountain. Emata came second at dawn Thursday.

Meanwhile, Oracion and Emata are expected to return to the mountain's Base Camp Friday afternoon after being delayed by a snowstorm.

A welcome party awaits Oracion and Emata at the camp, said expedition leader Arturo Valdez. He said fellow climbers have prepared Filipino food for the duo after their grueling climb to the peak.

Oracion, Emata and Valdez are members of the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition. Garduce, meanwhile, is an individual climber.

The Philippine expedition is supported by Asia Brewery’s Summit Water, Philippine Airlines, Globe Roaming Services, Coleman, ABS-CBN, Stratworks, MedCentral, Mozcom, National Sports Grill, Fitness First, PowerUp, the Rudy Project, Kodak and the Philippine Accident Manager’s Insurance. (abs-cbnNEWS.com is the online news unit of ABS-CBN Interactive Inc., an ABS-CBN subsidiary)

GMA News.TV: Mountaineer Romeo "Romi" Garduce accomplished his mission of reaching the summit of Mount Everest between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (Nepal time) Friday. With Garduce’s feat, three Filipinos in three days have reached the top of the world’s highest mountain.

Garduce arrived at Mt. Everest’s summit 10 days before the 53rd anniversary of the historic May 29, 1953 climb of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

Leo Oracion on Wednesday afternoon became the first Filipino to make it to the top of the 29,035-foot-high mountain. Erwin “Pastor" Mata, Oracion’s teammate in the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition, duplicated the feat on Thursday morning.

Garduce summited Mt. Everest two months after he arrived in Nepal and underwent several weeks of acclimatization for the climb.

Garduce began his final push toward the summit when he left the Base Camp May 15. He reached Camp 4, the last of the numbered camps en route to the summit, on Thursday.

In the first two weeks of May, he trekked to Khumbu Icefall then to Camps 1 to 3, and back again to Base Camp to prepare for the high altitude and extreme cold.

"It's a pressure and a heavy load to carry, to be the first to attempt the big-E. I was hoping that somebody attempts it before I do…(but) it's not a choice anymore. I have to climb," Garduce wrote in a March blog entry.