DESPITE SHIP TRAGEDY
Parents of missing balikbayan family still praise God
By Alex Pal
Visayas Bureau
First Posted 15:22:00 07/05/2008
CEBU CITY, Philippines -- If they are not examining rotting corpses at the mortuary here, Tecla and Isidro Risma spend each day reading descriptions of the bodies provided by authorities, looking for something familiar.
This has been their routine every day for the last two weeks.
"I'm looking for a description of a body with a mole on the left side of the lower lip -- that would have to be my son A," the 72-year-old Tecla said.
A Risma, his wife Merle, daughters Angeline, 8, and Zyann, 16 months, and niece Jan Clair dela Cruz, 14, are among the more than 700 missing passengers of the ill-fated M/V Princess of the Stars.
"Each day we start off hopeful (as we look through the bodies) and we end up frustrated. Why, in the first place, was the boat allowed to leave in bad weather?" she asked with a deep sigh.
This was the first trip of A to the Philippines since he immigrated to the United States in 1998, where he worked in Colerain Township near Cincinnati, Ohio. His wife Merle and their daughter Angeline joined him in the US early last year.
A graduate of the Mapua Institute of Technology, A's career as an electrical engineer was starting to adapt in his adopted Ohio hometown and his list of clients was growing. "He had just bought a house and a car," Tecla said.
A was the eldest in a family of five. He has two brothers, B and C as well as two sisters, named Y and Z, who all live in Ohio. "My (first) husband didn't want long names and I didn't want to argue," Tecla recounted with a smile.
Tecla and her second husband, Isidro, 81, live out their retirement years as missionary doctors. They had arrived from the United States early last month to meet A's family in Cebu and join them on another boat trip to Surigao, where they would have celebrated A's 44th birthday on June 25.
Upon their parents' advise, A's family traveled on economy class.
"We experienced taking Tourist Class once and we thought that our grandchildren would enjoy it better if they took economy because there was a lot of room for them to move around. It would also be easier to leave the vessel in any eventuality," Tecla said.
"We were in contact with them until Saturday afternoon. When the ship still had not arrived in Cebu by 5:30 p.m., we inquired from the Sulpicio office about the ship's whereabouts and why we couldn't reach them anymore. We were told by the shipping company that it was probably just because there was no cell phone signal in that area."
But the secret soon leaked out, as people from Romblon had called Cebu families to relay the information. "That was when we learned that the reason we could no longer contact them on the boat Saturday afternoon was because it had already capsized," Tecla said.
The June 21 incident changed everything.
Anxious relatives of Princess of the Stars passengers started to gather outside the Sulpicio Lines office to wait for news of survivors. Lack of information on the tragedy angered many relatives as they pinned the blame on the shipping company.
But instead of getting angry and raising hell over their loss, the Risma family's Christian upbringing led them to pray.
"God never makes mistakes," Isidro, A's stepfather, told the INQUIRER. "When we learned of the incident, we told ourselves, 'that's it', we accepted their fate."
Friends from around the world, as well as from some of Isidro's fellow alumni from Silliman University (where he finished his pre-med course), through the Silliman University Alumni Council of North America, had sent them e-mails and called them to offer prayers and words of encouragement.
"If they're alive, that would be awesome. We'll all be jumping up and down. We'll bang heaven's door to say, 'Thank you Lord.' But if they didn't make it, we'll do the same thing and say, 'Thank you Lord," Y Comte, A's sister, told a television station in Ohio.
"We take comfort in knowing that our son and his family are already with the Lord. We may not be able to see them anymore but we know they are already with God," Tecla assured.
The shipping company, meanwhile, as well as the Coast Guard, the Pagasa weather forecasters, and other agencies, has been pointing an accusing finger at each other for the tragedy.
"There's a human side to it, but we are all Christians and leaving it to God and his providence. We feel God is in control and whatever happens happens…We'll have to deal with it," Comte said in an e-mail to friends.
As tough as the week has been, the Rismas say the Lord did not let a day go by without showing them His mercy and grace. "Each day He brings us closer to Him as He continues to see us through this tragedy," Y wrote in an e-mail, which has been circulated around the world.
A Cincinnati company has offered to provide A's siblings with plane tickets to join their parents in the Philippines as they await word about their brother's family.
"Although we are physically, emotionally, and mentally tired, we find it hard to contain our praises as we see His divine providence. He really is an awesome God! I pray that you would come, and taste, and see that the Lord is good," Y said, quoting Biblical verses.
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