Pinatubo victims raise funds for Bicol folk

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Once victims of deadly lahar flows from Mt. Pinatubo, local folk readily responded to the call of Mayor Oscar Rodriguez and pledged nearly P300,000 during a telethon for Bicol villagers displaced by mudslides unleashed by typhoon "Reming."

The three-hour telethon dubbed Sagip Bicol: Abe-abe Mipapanantabe (Succor for Bicol: Helping Together) was held the other night on local cable TV station Infomax.

"The pledges for cash donations amounting to P290,870 are apart from commitments to donate in kind," said Rodriguez, who hosted the show along with Fr. Restie Lumanlan of the Save Pampanga Movement, Maureen Aquino, Dalsa Hizon, and Butch Jamon.

In October 1995, lahar flows from Mt. Pinatubo struck a number of barangays in San Fernando, burying homes and claiming lives.

Just like in Bicol, a typhoon — "Mameng" — triggered the lahar flows which hit San Fernando and the neighboring Bacolor barangay of Cabalantian.

During the calamity, Rodriguez helped rescue a woman and her child who were trapped in their hut in a ricefield and brought them to safety in Mexico town.

"We expect more donations from Capampangans for the people in Bicol whose plight they genuinely know because they have been through it," Rodriguez said.

He said other callers pledged medicines, food and clothes for the affected Bicol folk.

Meanwhile, Ugnayan, a group of Pinatubo victims, claimed that what happened in Bicol reflected the government’s negligence which lahar victims in Central Luzon had experienced.

"During the volcano’s initial minor signs of restlessness in March 1991, we were not told of the magnitude of the pending eruption," Ugnayan chairman Frank Mangulabnan said.

He claimed that no evacuation plan was in place when Pinatubo erupted.

"With limited resources, we conducted disaster preparedness trainings in cooperation with different non-government and civic organizations, taking into special account the vulnerability of the people. In most cases, we were shooed away by government officials, saying that we were scaring the people and we were branded as rumormongers," he said.