TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Liezl Corales, a 30-year-old massage therapist, plans to skip work on Jan. 17 to brave the mammoth crowd and catch even just a glimpse of Pope Francis when he makes a historic visit to Leyte.
“I will definitely be there with my son,” said Corales, who wants to thank the pope for what she considers her miraculous survival from the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda.
On Nov. 8, 2013 when the typhoon struck, Corales clutched her then six-year-old son on her right arm and held on to a piece of metal with her other hand for hours while flash floods whipped through the school where they sought shelter the night before.
Corales and her fellow Leytenos are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Pope Francis with streamers and posters spread all over the province. Souvenir t-shirts, caps and pins bearing the face of the pontiff are for sale in the city’s busy streets.
Authorities are racing against time to prepare the city for the pope’s arrival. A stage is being constructed near the airport for the papal mass as hundreds of white fences are on standby to line the path of the papal convoy.
Pope Francis will arrive here on Jan. 17 and celebrate mass at the city’s airport at 9:30 a.m. He will then go to Palo to have lunch with Yolanda survivors at the Archbishop’s Residence at 12:45 p.m.
He will also bless the Palo Metropolitan Cathedral, which was damaged by the super typhoon. Finally, he will bless the Pope Francis Center for the Poor, also in Palo.
Rogelio Balbueno, a dispatcher at the Tacloban airport said, the pope’s visit is history in the making.
“We are really excited. This is the first in history so we are really looking forward to this,” Balbueno said.
Josie Esperas, a market vendor and resident of Barangay 68, one of the hardest hit areas, said that she, too, would try to go to the airport to welcome the Pope.
“If not, we will wait along the road from the airport,” she said, adding that it is an honor to be visited by the pope.
“It’s a very big honor for us to be able to be blessed by him for our second life,” Esperas said.
Preparations for the papal visit are ongoing all over Leyte alongside the rehabilitation of many of the capital’s damaged roads, churches, schools and homes.
In Palo, church workers are rushing to complete reconstruction of the Palo Metropolitan church, which lost its roof and had its stained glass windows shattered by the typhoon.
The walls and roof have been repainted but the broken stained glass windows have yet to be replaced.
“We will do our best to complete the rehabilitation,” said Abby, a church worker.
In an interview, Leyte Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla said the province is eager to welcome the pope.
“The visit gives the people of Leyte hope after Yolanda struck. This is to tell everybody that there is hope. It’s really a big boost to the morale of the people,” Petilla said.