A call we must answer

The stories are heart-breaking, the images heart-wrenching. Lifeless bodies amongst mud and debris, children crying for mothers who will never answer. A father helplessly clawing at the earth looking for a daughter that the earth has taken back. We seem to have to write these stories too often: from volcanic eruptions to super typhoons, floods, mudslides and landslides, we have had to look at death and destruction on massive, almost unimaginable scales, and keep our bearings as straight as we can to write the story and tell the tale. It is not an easy task.

Across a large swath of Southern Luzon, people searched in vain for family members. Most of the dead were unclaimed and unidentified, buried in mass graves, because in many cases there were no surviving relatives to claim or even name them. Where homes used to be there was now only mud, and boulders, lives and possessions buried under a deluge that came cascading down the slopes of a volcano hailed around the world for her perfect cone. Entire barangays are now no more; where a cluster of houses used to be there is now only a hint of what used to be a roof.

"Look at this place," a man said as he dug out a tattered family picture album from the mud that covered his home in Barangay Padang at the foot of the volcano. "All that is left are memories. We will try to start over again, but we absolutely have nothing anymore." Despite losing everything, this man is still one of the lucky ones: most of his family survived.

Those of us in Metro Manila and other areas of the country spared by super typhoon Reming should indeed count our blessings. But more than that, we must share our blessings–share what we did not lose with those who have lost so much. In Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines Sur, Marinduque, Quezon, Batangas, Mindoro, the loss goes way beyond the number of casualties and estimated damage to property.

Across the country and indeed across the world, people and organizations are responding with aid in cash and in kind. Church groups, socio-civic clubs, non-government organizations, private corporations are mobilizing manpower and resources to help government in rescue and relief operations. The STAR’s Operation Damayan team went to Albay last week with the first batch of relief goods consisting of food, water, blankets, medicine and grocery items. Operation Damayan will continue to send teams with relief goods in the coming weeks.

The STAR’s photo teams who went to cover the storm and its aftermath tell of winds so strong their vehicle was nearly lifted off its wheels. Roofs not just of houses but even of churches were sent flying. And almost everywhere, the sight and scent of death pervaded. "Parang delubyo," was our driver’s description.

Roads and bridges were washed away, and only by sheer guts and a hardy four-wheel drive did the team get out of towns isolated by now non-existent access roads. The photos on this spread, and those that have appeared and continue to see print in the pages of The STAR, are the product of this hardy and courageous bunch.

We ask our readers therefore to look at our brothers in need and open your hearts to them–and with open hearts open your wallets and your checkbooks and your closets and your cupboards.

Instead of spending money on firecrackers for this New Year’s Eve, give the money to relief efforts for Reming’s victims–make your "bang" a truly meaningful one, one that will not just light up the sky for a few seconds but light up a life for days, even months and years, to come. Let us be the bright star in the sky for our countrymen living in darkness and deprivation, and bring them the light of hope.