W. Visayas commemorates: Yolanda w/ protest actions

CEBU, Philippines - Today's commemoration of the first anniversary of super typhoon Yolanda's devastation on November 8 last year will be marked with a tree-planting activity at Sapian town in Capiz, simultaneous Masses in all parishes of the province, and a forum on bayanihan spirit at the Capitol.

In the northern towns of Iloilo and in Iloilo City, a mass will be celebrated at 7 a.m. today, followed by a commemorative program, but Yolanda victims around Panay will have their own way of remembering the disaster by holding protest actions against the "incompetency of the government" in addressing their needs.

Hope Hervilla, chairperson of Bayan-Panay, said there will be a staging of simultaneous protest actions in the provinces of Antique, Aklan, Capiz and Iloilo, as well as in Iloilo City, to be participated by an estimated 17,000 Panayanons.

Marivic Aguirre, chairperson of Tumanduk, said at least 10,000 people are expected to join the protest action in Capiz, involving a march-rally from Sigma town to Roxas City, after which a People's Congress will be held to assail the government's slow response and minimal support to their needs as victims of Yolanda.

In Iloilo province, Very Reverend Father Marco Sulayao of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente said church people will lead the conduct of protest rally and an ecumenical gathering in Estancia town, with 38 pumpboats to be used in a fluvial protest.

Estancia and the 5th district of Iloilo were one of the most hardly-hit areas by Yolanda, which also resulted in an oil spill after a power barge of the National Power Corporation was damaged by the super typhoon.

In Iloilo City, the protests will be done with a march-rally, starting from the Iloilo Capitol and then through the main streets of the city to assail government's slow response to the calamity that hit Western Visayas.

Records from the Office of Civil Defense-Region 6 showed that Yolanda claimed 259 lives in Western Visayas while 3,923 were injured and 26 were missing. Capiz recorded 77 deaths and 2,935 injured with one missing.

A total of 616,946 families or more than 2.83 million people were affected, along with close to 210,000 houses destroyed and more than 300,000 partially damaged in the region. The OCD-6 estimated the cost of damage to infrastructure at more than P515.98 million, agriculture at more than P3 billion and fishery at more than P1 billion.

Among the tragic stories of Yolanda in Western Visayas is the fate of 5-year-old Lyca, granddaughter of Edmundo Villareiz of the island-village of Bantigue in Capiz.

Villareiz recalled Lyca's last words, "Lolo, please don't leave me," kept on haunting him to this day. He recounted that at around 9 a.m. on November 8 last year, he warned his daughter-in-law Edilyn, mother of Lyca, to evacuate to a safer place.

Edilyn and her husband, Raymond, and their two children, was in Iloilo when Yolanda battered the island. With no sign of rain, Villareiz quickly brushed off Edilyn's plea saying that he has a lot of things to do. Two hours later, heavy rains and strong winds pummeled Bantigue prompting Villareiz, his wife, their four children and Lyca to run to a supposedly safer place.

As they were walking at the edge of a fishpond, he could still vividly recall Lyca's plea to hold on to her no matter what. "It was then that a strong surge of water quickly engulfed us. A branch of tree then hit my leg causing me to lose balance," Villareiz said in Hiligaynon.

He lost grasp to Lyca and could not find the girl as the water quickly subsided. Villareiz narrated that they later saw Lyca's body half buried in mud. "Had we heeded to the government's warning to evacuate early to a safer ground, Lyca could still have been alive," Villareiz said, as he kept in blaming himself for what happened.

It turned out, Lyca was just one of the seven who died in their village during Yolanda's onslaught. Of the more than 60 families in their small community, only a handful evacuated to the other sitio, where an elementary school served as evacuation center. (FREEMAN)