OUR LADY OF HOPE OF PALO. Archbishop John Du lead in crowning the Our Lady of Hope of Palo on Nov.8, coinciding the 9th year anniversary of the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda.’ Several accounts say that a woman protected and save them during that monster disaster. (ARCHDIOCESE OF PALO)
TACLOBAN CITY– A Marian image who inspired hope in the aftermath of Super Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ was crowned Tuesday (Nov.8), coinciding with the ninth-year commemoration of the monster tragedy.
The episcopal coronation of the Our Lady of Hope of Palo was held at the Palo Cathedral, Leyte, presided by Archbishop John Du and attended by priests and local officials led by Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, Palo Mayor Remedios ‘Matin’ Petilla, and Rep. Jude Acidre of Tingog party-list.
The image, made of wood retrieved from the debris of the cathedral which sustained much damage due to Yolanda, was made by ecclesiastical artist Willy Layug with the crowns of the Our Lady of Hope and Her Child Jesus handcrafted by Noli Manalang.
During his visit to Tacloban City and Palo on January 17, 2015, Pope Francis blessed the seven-foot Marian image now enshrined at the cathedral.
Du said that he decided to commission to make the Marian image back in 2014 based on several accounts during the onslaught of Yolanda saying Mother Mary had saved and rescued them from the storm surges.
Archbishop Du said that the coronation of the Our Lady of Hope of Palo nine years after Yolanda’s onslaught was an indication that the survivors have moved on from the tragic disaster.
“As we have nine days novena for the dead; we were all mourning for the past nine years. In the same way, Our Lady was mourning with us,” he said in his homily.
“But now after nine years, our time of mourning has come to an end. There is a festive character to our celebration,” Du added.
Prior to the episcopal coronation, the Our of Lady of Hope of Palo with the Child Jesus has no adornment.
The Marian image is dressed in a Filipino attire symbolizes that She is ‘with us,’ Du said.
The crowns symbolize hope while the flowers depicts of new day; the anchor is for stability amidst the storms of life while the pearls, fruits of the sea, shows the Lady has triumphed over the waves of the storm.
Meantime, the olive branches means a sign of new life with the aquamarine stones to depict the element of water and the sea while the moissanite diamonds, silver, and gold point on the regal stature of Our Lady of Hope of Palo.
The feast day of Our Lady of Hope of Palo falls every Nov.8. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.(center), Speaker Martin G. Romualdez (left) and Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez (right) lead the wreath-laying ceremony and offered prayers in honor of ‘Yolanda’ victims at the mass grave in Barangay Basper where 2,273 bodies of victims of the Super Typhoon Yolanda were buried during Tuesday’s 9th year Yolanda commemoration. (VER NOVENO)
TACLOBAN CITY-President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Jr. said his coming to the anniversary of the onslaught of Super Typhoon ‘Yolanda’ is not just to remember the dead buried but those who remain to be unaccounted.
In his less than 10-minute speech during the 9th year anniversary of one of the world’s strongest typhoons to hit inland on Tuesday (Nov.8), the President said forgetting the unaccounted would mean the tragedy of Yolanda will continue.
“They say why do we commemorate Yolanda still after nine years? I come here because I must commemorate those unaccounted dead that up to now we do not know how many that number is. We must come to these commemorations so that we will remember those who were told not to remember,” Marcos said.
“..And we will not forget about them. And we cannot forget about them. And I know, you do not forget about them. That is why we continue to commemorate Yolanda and we continue to grieve our dead. Because we not only grieve the dead that are here, but we also grieve for those who we don’t even know how many they are, who they are and where they are,” the President added.
In a brief interview after his speech, the President admitted that since Day 1, he has questioned the number of deaths due to Yolanda.
“I’m questioning that since Day 1. Six thousand ang sabi nila. Its not just 6,000 plus,” he said.
The counting of deaths due to Yolanda was stopped with still thousands of people reported missing.
Based on the official figure released earlier by the government, the number of deaths in Eastern Visayas, to include here in the city considered to be the ground zero of Yolanda, reached up to 6,000.
However, nine years after the monstrous disaster struck the region, questions as to the actual number of deaths remains.
On the earlier days after Yolanda pummeled the city and some parts of the region, then police director for Eastern Visayas Elmer Soria said that the number of deaths due to Yolanda could have reached 10,000.
After he issued that statement, Soria was relieved from his post on the ground that he would undergo ‘stress debriefing.’
Yolanda occurred during the term of former President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III.
Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who was then the outgoing mayor when Yolanda hit the city on November 8, 2013, said that he support on the statement of the President, who is his cousin.
Romualdez said that while it was really ‘difficult’ to make an actual number of those who perished due to Yolanda, the number of casualties in the city could be higher.
“I think the number of deaths could not be lowered than 5,000. Aside from those that we have buried (at the mass grave), there were families who lost their loved ones who buried them right away,” the city mayor said.
The official figure of the number of deaths in the city were placed at 2,270 who were all buried at a mass grave at Holy Cross Memorial Cemetery in Barangay Basper where the commemorative program was held.
Among those present during the commemorative event were Senator Francis Tolentino, Leyte congressman and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Eastern Samar Rep. and House minority leader Marcelino Libanan, and Interior Sec. Benhur Abalos.
SALCEDO, Eastern Samar — When Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) wiped out much of the mangroves in Eastern Visayas, Oliver Layugan, a resident of Salcedo town, was filled with horror.
A wharf located in the middle of the mangrove protected zone in Barangay Caridad in Salcedo, Eastern Samar. Photo by Queene Tisha Dela Cruz)
“The [destruction of] mangroves after Yolanda was a lot bigger than I had expected… Huge mangroves were toppled down and drowned in mud,” Layugan said.
Some 5,163.06 hectares of mangrove forests were destroyed in the provinces of Leyte and Eastern Samar when Yolanda ravaged the central Philippines. According to the Global Mangrove Watch, 4,395.82 hectares of mangroves had recovered in the two provinces in 2020.
In the northern coast of Salcedo, mangroves have returned to their pre-Yolanda extent, save for some small patches, a study that calculated post-Yolanda mangrove damage and recovery using remote sensing found.
Over the years, the local government of Salcedo and private organizations have been working hand in hand to restore mangroves that protect coastal communities from storms and help in the fight against climate change.
Jessica Rojero, barangay captain of Caridad, said most of the mangroves in the village “are already recovered and in good condition.”
Community-based effort
In 2014, several organizations in Brgy. Caridad became beneficiaries of a program that aimed to restore mangrove areas and establish a nursery, which became a source of income for community members. Groups earn P10 for every mangrove seedling purchased from their nursery.
The barangay is also imposing fines and penalties to individuals who engage in the illegal cutting of mangroves in the protected zone.
“We are thankful that the community is participative and supportive in terms of these programs as well as for the active participation of the local organizations present in the barangay,” Rojero said.
Matarinao is also one of the barangays in northern Salcedo that reported good mangrove recovery. Residents there are active in reporting illegal activities, especially since mangroves are located in their backyards.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) introduced a family-based project where locals are paid annually by planting and nurturing 30,000 mangrove seedlings in the coastline.
Residents there applied the clustering method of planting, instead of the conventional straight line technique, claiming it has a higher success rate.
“A paradigm shift [is needed] as the government and most agencies define success at the start as present seedlings or hectares planted. Biological success should be defined at the end: What was the percent [of] survival? How many hectares have been created? And for that, we need monitoring,” said Dr. Jurgenne Primavera, a renowned mangrove expert in the country.
Locals said the rehabilitated mangrove areas in the northern coast of Salcedo do not only provide protection to communities but also sustain fisheries.
“Mangroves are important to us, especially those who live here in the coastline because it lessens the effects of the waves and the destruction to the community,” said Juny Natividad, a resident of Matarinao.
Lack of protection
On the other hand, large swathes of mangroves in the southern coast of Salcedo were still unable to recover nine years after the onslaught of Yolanda.
Allen Glen Gil, one of the authors of the study mapping mangrove damage and recovery in Eastern Visayas, explained that the largest damage was seen in the town’s southern portion because it was closer to where the super typhoon first made landfall.
Mangroves in the coastal barangay of Tagbacan are still recovering from the destruction caused by Yolanda, leaving residents concerned about the lack of coastal defenses.
According to the Municipal Environmental and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), parts of southern Salcedo’s coastal barangays have not yet recovered because of their geography. The frequent typhoons that hit the area also affect the growth of mangroves.
Restoration efforts usually fail when mangroves are planted in appropriate sites or when wrong species are planted. Rhizopora or bakhaw is commonly found in the area, even though it is not a good species for planting in some seafront or coastal areas.
“Why bakhaw? Because the propagules [are] quite big because if we plant avicennia marina and sonneratia alba you need a nursery. It is planted by convenience not by ecology,” Primavera said.
“Always remember the differences between the variety of mangroves and their locations. First, do not plant bakhaw on seagrass beds and mudflats. Plant pagatpat/piapi in the middle-upper intertidal and the LGU should monitor and report the percent of surviving mangroves rather than percent of target seedlings/area planted,” she stressed.
Tagbacan’s Sangguniang Kabataan Chairman Rexon Oguirra also said that illegal cutting of mangroves and the lack of community support also contribute to mangrove degradation in the area.
Wrong species
Barangay councils are still looking for ways to improve their mangrove rehabilitation programs and collaborate with other non-government organizations in implementing their future activities.
One of the major problems faced by the coastal folk is the lack of information dissemination on the proper ways of planting mangroves. The environment office of Salcedo said it trains residents to be knowledgeable on mangrove rehabilitation.
Primavera urged communities to try planting other species in areas where mangrove restoration endeavors have failed.
She added that the government should do an education campaign, implement a shift from paid labor to voluntary labor, and assist residents in securing forest management agreements and legal ownership of their mangrove areas in order for more people to appreciate mangroves and their ecosystem services better.
“I wish my people knew the reason why the air is so hot, why it is hard to catch fish in the nearby seas,” Layugan said.
“If the mangrove forest is fully restored, the extreme heat in the island can be lessened and we can be protected from the threat of typhoons,” he added.
This story was supported by Climate Tracker and Oxfam Pilipinas.
By: Queenee Tisha Dela Cruz and Dianuz Emstien J. Discar
TACLOBAN CITY – About 400 cyclists joined on Sunday(Nov.6) the ‘Cycling for Climate Justice’ which calls local government units to provide bike lanes and more importantly help reduce carbon emission.
The cyclists, coming from this city and the nearby town of Palo, covered 31.5 kilometers that started at Balyu-an grounds, this city going to Palo town and back to Tacloban.
The route covered areas that were greatly devastated by the storm surge brought by Super Typhoon ‘Yolanda’, namely, the Anibong District in Tacloban where several ships were washed ashore that killed several residents, and the coastal community of Payapay in San Jose district, and to the coastal villages of Salvacion, Baras, and Candahug, all in Palo.
The cycling event was part of the activities that non-government organizations and local government units organized in relation to today’s 9th Yolanda commemoration.
Organizers of the event are calling for everyone to start being active in climate change mitigation efforts which the country had experienced in the wake of Yolanda’s onslaught.
They are also encouraging more people to try biking or cycling as alternative means of transportation to help lessen carbon emission and for local government units to provide equal rights to bikers in using roads.
They are also pushing for government agencies and LGUs to use bike in emergency response when motorbikes and vehicles are impossible to use.
The groups are also calling for rich countries to provide climate reparation to smaller countries that are now starting to experience the worst effect of climate change
The cycling event was organized by the OXFAM Philippines, Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, Firefly Brigade Inc., supported by the city government of Tacloban and the municipality of Palo. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
ORMOC CITY– A Philippine Red Cross worker was found dead Sunday (Nov.6) in Barangay Galutan, Catarman, Northern Samar.
Police Lt. Col. Ma. Bella Rentuaya, regional information officer of the Philippine National Police, identified the victim as Jasper Marquez, 27, single, and resident of the village where his dead body was found in a grassy part of the village at about 7:30 am.
Rentuaya said that a report from the Catarman Police Station said that it was the village chairman, Elpidio Saliling, who reported the incident to the local police.
She added that based on the initial investigation conducted by responding police through an interview in the area with friends and relatives of the victim disclosed that Marquez was last seen about 1:30 early morning.
Rentuaya further said that a friend of the victim, Ernesto Pabia, disclosed that before the incident, he and the victim went on board on their respective motorcycle to Elyang Bar located at Bobon, also in Northern Samar to relax and have fun.
Pabia said that after consuming two bottles of beer they decided to go home and when they arrived at Catarman proper at about 1:30 am, the victim told him that he had to meet someone.
A thorough investigation is now being conducted by the local police to unmask those responsible on the gruesome murder of Marquez. (ROBERT DEJON)
I simply cannot ignore the fact that as this coulmn see print, it will be the 9th year of that unforgettable calamity. Every pen pusher and pundit real and otherwise, would write and describe the said event. That era that similarly separated the Triassic to the Jurassic or the Normal Calamity to that of Yolanda.
Today i take cudgels and publish a real Story of a friend who happen to be a DOUBLE AMPUTEE, a person who had lost both feet due to a vehicular accident. His name is Rinbert Emmanuel Martinez , and this is a story of fortitude and hope;
Surviving Haiyan.
Day 1: As usual, Tatay and I woke up around 4am and had coffee. Heavy rain was already coming along with the strong winds. I woke up my wife and 2 children who were with us so we could pray the rosary together after we secured our windows and doors. But the ceiling was already leaking water that I told Tatay to go inside our room because it was the safest area in the house. Without turning his back he muttered: Don’t go inside the water is here already. I did not realize then that flood had came in as I was on my wheelchair.
I looked at our jalousie windows and saw the water level outside was already half of our house. Tatay didn’t seem to know what to do at this point and may have been shocked to see what was happening. So I took charge and asked Tatay to try opening the main sliding door, but it didn’t budge. I asked my 14 year old eldest son to quickly open the kitchen door so we could escape outside, it was also stuck. At that moment I was already thinking that this is it, we will all perish as the water level was now waist deep and I was already swimming leaving my wheelchair behind. The water was swirling around like the inside of a washing machine. As I looked and thought for ways to save all of us I looked up our ceiling and saw the manhole with its cover flown away. I pointed it to Tatay and told them to catch a table that was floating around and put a chair on it so we could escape through the ceiling.
I told my 8 year old daughter to go up first then my wife, my eldest son went up after his mother. Tatay didn’t want to go up as he was concerned knowing I won’t be able climb with them. I convinced him, that between us two he was more likely to survive and take care of my family after this. And besides, I told him, I can swim and I’ll just join them when the water reaches the ceiling.
And I did just that. We were up there from 7am up to 10am when the water subsided. I asked everybody to jumped down while the water was still waist level to cushion their impact. But when it was my turn to come down, I have to rappel down using the electric wire in the ceiling. Mud was knee-deep and everything inside our home were in shambles.
We didn’t know what to do, where to start cleaning and how. We were in danger of being cut from the debris inside as we didn’t have footwear, pun intended. We managed to open our main door but couldn’t get out since by now our surroundings were full of debris. So we just collected and salvaged food and drinkable water inside the house to help survive the uncertainty ahead. I managed to get out of home around noon time and saw for the first time the devastation brought by Haiyan.
I stayed outside for quite a while wondering if things really happened or was this just a dream, I even managed to slap myself to be sure that I was wide awake and sane enough to understand what just happened to us.
While outside I saw a lot of ‘zombies’ who didn’t know where to go, many were crying looking for loved ones some I know asked me if we all survived and I asked the same of them. Around 1pm I saw our mayor going down the debris coming from their residence near the airport, with him was his wife, their 2 daughters and a bodyguard with a canine tagging along.
I shouted to him and asked him how he was, he muttered tearily “Pareho pareho tayo”. As he went down the debris there was a military truck on stand by and he asked the soldiers if he can bring them to city hall, a soldier refused telling only that their orders was to proceed to the airport. The mayor told him, with all these debris no vehicle can go through to the airport. So the mayor and company continued walking in disbelief( I learned later that Roxas and Gazmin were just ahead in the highway island fronting Coca-Cola plant).
Sometime in the afternoon I saw in the distance my dear friends Ruel & Divina Latoja, in tattered clothes and mismatched footwear, coming out of San Jose district. They were with their children Aine & Dindin but minus the youngest baby Raphael. I learned that they lost their only boy as they cling for their lives to the only wall that was left standing in their home a mere 50 meters away from the seashore.
After a quick conversation the family moved along heading to the nearest relative to seek shelter and help. We decided to stay put for the day and spend another night at home because we didn’t know the condition of the rest of Tacloban City. Many neighbors shared our home, one of the few houses left standing in ground-zero, for the night and most of them were mothers nursing babies and little children.
Two beds in our room were dry as it probably floated during the flood, these became the sleeping beds for Tatay and my own family. Me, I stayed in the sala with the people who took shelter with us and slept on an old ‘baol’. Around midnight there was chaos outside and people were shouting: tsunami. (to be continued next issue)
