Pablo: Sendong all over again?

What is it about December, typhoons and Mindanao anyway? I can’t believe it is Sendong all over again. Just a few months ago, our team in Lingkod Kapamilya was preparing to give a pamasko to the Sendong victims in Iligan. It’s been a year already since the tragedy, and all of a sudden, Pablo came. 

I had just arrived from a coverage in China when I heard about the big typhoon. It was a Tuesday and news abound about residents evacuating to safer places. That sounded like good news. At least, residents were more prepared. But I spoke too soon. The initial report by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Tuesday afternoon reported that there were four casualties. But different media organizations reported otherwise. ABS-CBN’s Vina Araneta reported more than 40 casualties, after seeing the bodies herself, but it was too early to confirm anything, said the NDRRMC. A day after, hundreds of bodies were recovered while hundreds were missing and injured. And the numbers continue to increase.

Our Lingkod Kapamilya public service head, Jodink Sayong, went ahead with our team to assess the situation in Surigao del Sur. For a couple of times, he was out of reach. Back in Manila, we were all set to go. When I finally got hold of him, he firmly told us to wait. “The situation here is different,” it was more difficult than Sendong. A total of six bridges were damaged, making parts of Surigao del Sur, particularly Baganga, Boston and Cateel isolated from everything. What made matters worse was that the devastated areas were far apart from one another, and three to four hours from the Davao City airport.

It was already early Thursday that Jodink, our cameraman Allan and the Sagip Kapamilya Team were able to penetrate the town of Baganga in Surigao Del Sur. The relief goods were loaded onto a Navy Vessel, as the sea was the only route available to reach the isolated areas. It took them eight hours on the boat to reach Baganga. They did not eat anything the entire time, and slept at the deck of the boat.

At the ABS-CBN Foundation office, Sagip Kapamilya program director Tina Monzon-Palma was busy sending funds from Manila to our regional network in Davao, as this was the easiest way to mobilize things. She was in constant communication with DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman, asking when we could load our relief goods in the C130 plane of the military and coordinating which areas needed Sagip Kapamilya assistance.

People in our news desk were very involved in figuring out how the network could help. They cried upon watching Jeff Canoy’s report in a hospital in New Bataan seeing the little children’s bruised faces. A little boy, who was separated from his family, was rescued by a stranger, Engr. Lolito Campos.  

We thought of what to bring. Toys. The children would appreciate toys, and immediately we requested toys from Sagip Kapamilya. Medicine. Medicine was surely needed by the patients. We packed what we could and got to the airport. We had excess baggage but we had to bring the medicine immediately. 

In the plane, I tried to catch a few minutes of sleep, interrupted by the man beside me. He told me that the lady beside him just got back from Abu Dhabi. I felt a bit guilty for wanting to rest. Flora is from Lingig in Surigao del Sur. Early Monday morning, Pablo’s fury damaged their family’s house. Thinking it was safer, they vacated their house, but a tree collapsed on her eldest brother and killed him. She was still clueless whether the roads were already passable. In eight hours, she would be with her grieving family.

Sagip Kapamilya had no time to spare. On the ground, we coordinated with the 10th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army to get instructions on where to proceed. The mining communities of Mt. Diwata (Diwalwal) and Upper Ulip in Monkayo still have not received any form of relief. We aborted our plan to go to New Bataan in Compostela Valley because Pres. Noynoy Aquino who was visiting the area on that day, would distribute relief goods already in the area. 

Before going to Monkayo, we dropped by the Compostela Valley Provincial Hospital in Montevista to visit the little boy in the news. He was seated on the lap of Engr. Campos, the man who rescued him. The good news is, after being featured in TV Patrol, the relatives of three-year-old Raniel were able to find him. His Uncle Jojo informed us that Raniel’s father was alive, but his mother and 11 siblings were still missing. Raniel continued to cry and was irritated to have people around him, even towards his own uncle. But like any child, he stopped crying when we gave him a toy. For that brief moment, I hoped that things would stay that way for Raniel — happy. We hope that we hear good news about his family. 

After five days of being isolated, the roads to Monkayo were already accessible, but only to all terrain vehicles. We loaded the relief goods onto the six-by-six trucks of the military. We had a convoy of three military trucks filled with relief goods and traversed the zigzag road seemingly headed towards the clouds. It reminded me of our trips to Baguio via the Kennon Road, but with the terrain of Mt. Pinatubo.

Instead of green pine trees, the slopes of Mt. Diwata seemed like there had been kaingin. The trees were leafless like toothpicks, and some were like pick-up sticks that had fallen to the ground. The villagers told me that the winds and rains caused it. I could only imagine Pablo’s wrath. Houses, government offices and a gymnasium here were damaged by the wind. Other communities suffered worse. Mountain floods and mudslides buried their houses, and there was not a trace of life. 

Aldrin, a miner, only had a shirt on his back as he lined up to collect some relief goods. His house was buried by a mudslide. He admitted that mining, from which he earns his keep, might have caused the devastation. “We bore many holes into the mountains and the timber that we’d place there would eventually rot, so when it rained, the mountain caved in.” And yet, Aldrin has no plans to quit mining. If lucky, he can earn as high as P20,000 by just spending an hour in the pit. But other miners, especially those in New Bataan where scores of people died, want an alternative livelihood.

Heading back to Manila, the headline in one of the papers quoted Pres. Aquino as saying, “Why did this happen?” pertaining to Pablo’s fury. But I ask, “Why did this have to happen... again and again and again?” We all know the answers. We didn’t do enough. We didn’t do anything. Enough of lives silenced because we have done nothing to prevent a tragedy like this from happening. 

(P.S. To Mayor Domogan of Baguio, please DO something about my beloved city. It’s another tragedy waiting to happen. Heaven forbid.)

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