Together, Arise!

“Do we really know, do we really care…are we the kind of people who do nothing more than stare…all those empty eyes… how much more can we bear?”

These are some of the lyrics of one of Gary’s latest recordings entitled “The Answer.” He wrote that song after visiting survivors of the earthquake that hit Luzon in 1990 and finally was inspired to record it after seeing on television the extent of damage in the aftermath of the typhoon in the Visayas.

He sang it in the US with videos of our recent trips to Leyte after Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan ripped the province apart.

Those scenes, literally and actually, were what met us when Gary, the Genesis team and I flew to Ormoc in December with the Energy Development Corp. (EDC), and then to Tacloban in January with the Unicef group. We will never forget those trips.

I can only imagine what happened: Lifetime savings, possessions, legal documents, family members, computers, cell phones, cars, livelihood and ancestral homes – all gone. Ormoc and Tacloban were once beautiful thriving cities where Gary would perform, but as we drove through the roads, every house seemed to have been damaged and so many trees and telephone poles were down.

Tanauan was worse. They said 33,000 coconut trees went down in the Tacloban area. Tanauan had a population of 53,000 and almost all homes were either destroyed or damaged.

In Palo, Leyte, we quietly walked past the mass graves and read the names of family members with personal items of the victims attached to the crosses. There were items that gripped us: a stuffed toy, a special watch, an empty beer bottle, a doll, a remote control.

One woman came up to me with a very sad face and I asked, “Kumusta po kayo Manang (How are you Ma’am)?” She motioned to a grave with two names. John Hope was her only child and the floods swept him and his cousin away with water that filled up a school gym.

She quietly said, “Siguro hanggang dun lang ang buhay niya at binigay siya ng Panginoon sa akin para sa maiksing panahon lamang (Maybe his life was meant to be short and God gave him to me for only a brief period).”

That statement cut through to my heart. I wanted to weep. Here was this lady who lost her only child speaking about a faith that was hard to understand, but trusting in God’s destiny for her son.

Meanwhile, nearby, Gary was watching a body bag with a nameless child being buried. I smelled the stench and I realized this was the smell that my friends who had come the week after the typhoon were talking about.

I imagined losing one of my children or all of them. At that point, I was able to grasp the magnitude of the grief of the entire region.

I asked myself, “How could these people live in such discomfort and devastation?” So much death…so many lost dreams…and no roofs over their heads, no means of living, no decent sanitation. I’ve never seen so many sad eyes in my life.

The SPED School of Sto. Niño was a touching experience as special kids gave Gary a presentation. One teenage boy, Kenjie, could very well be one of the dancers of “ASAP,” dancing for Gary like a real pro. Gary said: “I’m impressed!” Special children were hugging Gary and playing with him, oblivious of the tragic circumstances that befell their families.

It was so heart tugging to watch the mentally disabled as well as the teachers cling to Gary and hug him, with the instructors quickly whispering their own personal nightmares.

Change location to Rizal National High School. Some of the families were evacuated from their homes and one such victim was Kent Bryan, who lost his two grandmothers, his mother and only brother. He watched his lolas, his mom and only brother drown.

He said he knew how to swim because he would steal away from his mom and did not tell her he went swimming alone in the sea. He became a very strong swimmer and survived because he clung to a pole for many hours. So when the waves engulfed them he was able to swim. His housemates were not as fortunate. He was found naked on top of a mound of rubble and was turned over to his father, who had another family already.

Just as he clung to a pole, he attached himself to Gary when asked for a photo, clinging to him for dear life. Clearly, he needed lots of hugs.

Meantime, the problem of many of the other evacuees was that the parents of the school wanted them out because their children were studying under the sun.

One lady was crying in front of Gary as she related her woes. “We have nowhere to go. We lost everything.” We heard that line over and over.

After going through the evacuation center area which were classrooms turned into sleeping areas for four to five families per room, Gary did a mini-concert for the evacuees and students in the school. He conducted a dance contest and the survivors were, for a few moments, entertained and encouraged.

A surprise visitor to the concert was CNN Man of the Year Efren Peñaflorida, who is likewise raising funds for his school outreaches and who happened to be in Tacloban at that time.

The UNICEF team tendered a dinner at the building they rented specifically for the relief operations. We met the Rapid Response Team and these are disaster specialists who dropped everything to spend three months, including Christmas, in Tacloban.

They were in the Philippines three days after the typhoon. Sandra, the team leader from France, was based in New York together with Heather from Canada, Galit from Israel, Joe from the US, Gregory from Germany, Zafrin from Bangladesh, and others from India, South America, Europe and other countries.

Gary and I were blown away by the extent of  the team’s professionalism in the planning and logistics of the entire operation.

At the Leyte National High School the next day, the student council wanted to share three top stories of their schoolmates with Gary. They wanted to communicate their pain. It was a very touching scene as we gathered the council in a circle as one by one the chosen case studies were brought to us.

One girl explained how she did not know how to swim and she survived because she trusted her mother when she said, “Jump to me and I will catch you.” She thought of her studies and graduation and thought: “What if I drown? Then all my plans for graduation and to be a teacher will be ruined.” She decided to trust her mother and jumped… and lived to tell her story.

At the Tanauan High School, Gary gave another free concert and to witness the joy and happiness in the eyes of all these survivors was an epic moment. Someone said “watching Gary in concert makes you laugh, smile, dance and cry.” I had to hold back my tears as he reached out to all these homeless people. “Don’t give up, God said he will never leave you nor forsake you,” Gary would say again and again.

Some used to be rich while others simply were privileged enough to own their own homes. Some were business owners, others fishermen. And then they were all equal. And here they were, singing and dancing with my husband. The experience was too special and could never ever be captured in words.

I could go on and on. The Leyte experience was all about stories. There are thousands of stories yet to be told. I pray that every Filipino will understand the true value of what happened on Nov. 8, 2013 – that we still can unite with our resources, our time and our hearts to help rebuild the lives of our suffering countrymen and show the world the love, the resilience and the faith of the Filipino people.

The German told Gary: “Congratulations Gary. I have been to Syria and all over the world but this Philippine experience is amazing. Congratulations for being Filipinos.”

He said we are a different race. And we are. We truly are a smiling country with so much heart and so much soul.

There is still no power in many areas. Many still have no homes. No work. No food. Some are still searching for their loved ones. And hundreds of thousands of children have no schools. But I know that we will survive because we have been chosen for great things. We can laugh amidst our tribulations. We can pray our fears away. We are blessed and we must believe that nothing is impossible for those who believe. My prayer is that the Philippines will arise in all things. It is our time to shine.

Gary V will culminate his 30th anniversary in the industry in a two-night concert at Smart Araneta Coliseum titled ARISE Gary V 3.0 on April 11 and 12. For ticket inquires visit Ticketnet Online at www.ticketnet.com.ph or call 911-5555. Proceeds will be donated to the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda and to Shining Light Foudnation and Operation Blessing.