A man destined to rebuild a city

ORMOC CITY, Philippines  - Today, the city commemorates the 20th year of the tragic flash flood that devastated the city, claimed thousands of lives and left behind thousands of stories of survivors, including the now City Mayor Eric Codilla.

With the rise of this city after its unforgettable devastation, who would have thought that Codilla, the man who has been responsible behind the steady progress of Ormoc, almost died on that November 5, 1991 tragedy.

Codilla, a professional engineer, was managing the family-owned business located in the heart of the city. That day, he decided to go home for the noon break.

With his wife Julida and one worker, Codilla drove his car toward their house in Barangay Cogon. To reach there, they had to cross Cantubo bridge located in the upper part of the city and was the first of the three bridges linking the city proper to the northern part.

When the car was about to cross the bridge, he saw people from the other end waving their hands. Initially, he did not realize what they meant, but when Codilla's car reached the middle part, the bridge deck was already about half a foot under raging waters.

Like every alert driver does in a similar situation, Codilla tried to assess the prevailing condition by scanning at all direction the views from the driver's seat. On his right, he saw a drifting bamboo house a meter above the deck level rushing towards them in considerable speed. As it neared, the house got sucked by an unknown force into under the bridge, adding to the stuck debris in the bridge post to look like a natural dam. 

Codilla carefully but deftly maneuvered his car to the other lane of the bridge, but then he saw an incoming vehicle about to cross the bridge.

Codilla recalled that he had to blow the horn to signal the vehicle to let him pass the bridge first. The owner of the Suzuki Samurai car, Mario Baltonado who was a scion of a prominent family in the city, gave way to Codilla. By all accounts, right after Codilla got off the bridge, Baltonado had his car crossed it too to the other side.

Two days after, while the city was torn apart by thousands of dead and missing people, news broke out that the Suzuki Samurai was swept away when the floodwaters burst and broke the bridge-in a thunderous sound practically heard in the entire city center-shortly after Codilla had crossed it.

Codilla was stunned. "My legs shivered kay seconds lang amo interval," he recalled. Baltonado was later found dead in one of the islands between the towns of Inopacan and Matalom in Leyte.

Realizing his close brush with death during the 1991 flash flood in his city, the now Mayor Codilla still ponders to this day that his narrow escape may have had a reason or a mission that God wanted him to carry on.

"Gamay ra gyud to nga sipyat, siguro ang Ginoo naa pa gyud tingali assignment ihatag nako," he told The FREEMAN.

Twenty years had passed since then, from the scene of human tragedy, Ormoc is now known to be a tourist destination and a business hub in Eastern Visayas.

Codilla, now serving his last term as mayor, is ensuring that the city government continues to honor the over 8,000 victims in different of the flash flood which extent of devastation had shaken the world.

By unveiling a marker in this year's commemoration to remember the departed, Mayor Codilla hopes that the city's dark history will be reflected, not as a defeat but a reminder to the peoples of the world that God exists and Ormocanons have the resolve to stand firm amidst trials and   tribulations.

Codilla said he survived and he has made it worthy by making sure that Ormoc becomes a better place to live, a land flooded with the assurance of a brighter future for his people and for others. (FREEMAN)