RECALLING AND sharing stories and events of November 8, 2013 and the days that followed, Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), together with partner institutions, commemorated the anniversary of Super Typhoon Yolanda in the premises of San Jose Seminary Chapel inside the Ateneo de Manila University.
SLB, the sociopolitical apostolate of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines, is a religious non-profit organization that initiated Task Force Bangon Pilipinas, a wave of relief operations for survivors of recent disasters in the country. The project was launched before Yolanda; however, its operations intensified after the typhoon hit the country. Task Force Bangon Pilipinas also targets communities that are scarcely reached by government aid due to blocked roads.
SLB’s partner non-profit institutions include the Ateneo Disaster Response and Management Team, Caritas Novaliches, sisters of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) and the Canossian Daughters of Charity, to name a few.
Also present in the gathering, titled “Pabaon sa Pagbangon: Isang Taong Kuwento ng Pag-asa Makalipas ang Yolanda,” were a number of survivors and locals from Leyte and Eastern Samar, areas that bore the brunt of the typhoon. Inaugurated with a Mass, the event underscored sharing of experiences from Yolanda.
“Help us”
Diego Bermiso, barangay captain of Magay, Tanauan, Leyte thought that the worst had happened when the wind felled coconut trees and tore off roofs from houses. Then the water came.
Bermiso said they were warned of a storm surge, although with little explanation of what a storm surge would be like, most chose to stay in their homes. “Likas sa Waray ang matigas ang ulo (Warays are naturally hard-headed),” he joked, “At matapang (And brave).”
After the surge, the brave men and women of Magay found their barangay in ruins. They did not know what to do with their 71 dead, which they eventually buried in a mass grave in town. Out of the 157 houses, only three remained upright. Of the three, only one had its roof intact. The rest were just floorings.
With a can of paint that he salvaged from the debris, Bermiso recalled, he painted a huge “Help us” on what used to be the road. Help—trucks carrying aid and relief goods—merely passed by their barangay, being a coastal area along a national highway, on the first few days following Yolanda, Bermiso shared.
He said the first packs of rice from the Department of Social Welfare and Development came after a week. However, it was through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that rehabilitation really started.
Bermiso partnered with OSA sisters to rebuild Magay. With the help of donations accumulated by SLB, OSA sisters donated material like plywood and nails to the townsfolk, who together built new houses.
“[Ang mga] dating hindi marunong magpala, dahil sa Yolanda, marunong na (Those who did not know how to use a shovel, because of Yolanda, now do),” a wistful Bermiso recalled.
Now, 45 houses stand in Magay. The OSA sisters intend to fund five more similar houses and to build their own house in the barangay for long-term monitoring of the area.
Reconnection and recovery
Atty. Aira Agustin, a coordinator for Caritas Novaliches who hails from Baybay, Leyte, one of the less ravaged towns, recalled how difficult it was to communicate with relatives from the province after the typhoon.
Yolanda cut power and communication lines, and paralyzed services at Tacloban City’s airport, which would have been the slower means of transporting messages from outside the areas in states of calamity.
Bro. James Abella, a seminarian from San Jose Seminary and a native of Hernani, Eastern Samar, shared Agustin’s experience, adding how even single, short messages were difficult to come by after the typhoon.
Abella had no way of knowing if members of his family in Hernani survived the surge hours after he lost communication with them, so he decided to rent a van and made his way to Samar with five other seminarians.
“We entered Samar with fear,” Abella recalled of the day he went home. Hernani was unrecognizable after Yolanda. After the water subsided, there was sand all over town—it had seemed like the sea transferred to the area before going back to its place, taking the houses with it and leaving fragments of them in its wake. Abella’s family fortunately made it through the surge complete. Most of their friends and neighbors, however, did not.
Abella narrated that they slept in total darkness that night, amid a deafening silence punctured only by sobbing and screaming. Despite the trauma, Abella said, it did not take long for the people to find their ways to recovery. “[Super Typhoon] Yolanda made us super people,” he mused.
Agustin especially found the surge of donations and volunteers overwhelming. An estimated 9,000 volunteers signed up for relief operations headed by SLB alone.
Caritas Novaliches, aside from engaging in relief operations with partners like SLB, mainly donated coconut seedlings to ravaged communities in Leyte and Samar. Coconut farming is the primary source of income for farmers in the two hardest-hit provinces, 80% of whose rural farmers are reliant on coconut farming for livelihood, according to Rappler.
Currently, the said NGO is also managing scholarships for college students from the ravaged areas funded by religious groups and citizens from the private sector.
“Never a sprint, always a marathon”
The commemoration also served as an assessment of rehabilitation efforts made in the past year by SLB and its partners.
Bernie Aton, manager of SLB’s Disaster Risk and Reduction Management (DRRM) arm, highlighted the importance of networking with partners in the mobilization of aid and relief efforts. Aton, who was working in Bohol for aid after the earthquake in October 2013, considered Yolanda her biggest challenge yet. After Yolanda, Aton realized, the spirit of bayanihan was very much alive.
The SLB distributed 18,254 standard family packs, amounting to an estimated P14 million, to areas in Capiz, Leyte, Metro Manila, Samar and Palawan.
However, recovery is far from complete. Fr. Xavier Alpasa, SJ, executive director of SLB, said “[Rehabilitation after a disaster] is never a sprint, [but is] always a marathon.”
Focusing on barangays in Culion, Palawan as its target areas, SLB launched a three-year rehabilitation plan that will cover reconstruction, livelihood, renewable energy, community-based DRRM, community organizing and coastal resource management.
Aton added that SLB, together with other congregations, continues to headline disaster preparedness advocacies through the construction of rehabilitation centers and focused DRRM trainings in its target communities.
Updated on November 10, 2014 at 9:19 PM.
