ILOILO CITY – Barely reaching four feet, 13-year-old Rodney Berdin stood tall during the State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Congress on July 28.
Rodney received the loudest applause from the country’s highest officials, next only to the President’s announcement that charges for text messaging have been cut by half.
But he was unfazed by the applause and cheers. Rodney had traveled far – from his village in Rumbang in Belison town, around 20 km north of the capital town of San Jose in Antique – to be honored for his heroic act in saving his mother and two siblings at the height of typhoon “Frank,” which struck Panay Island last month.
For the first time in their lives, Rodney and his family traveled to Iloilo. Also, for the first time, they rode a plane to Manila and enjoyed the comforts of a hotel room for two days.
Memorable trip
But what was most memorable for them was going to Malacańang on Sunday on the eve of the Sona and talking with the President for more than an hour.
“We never imagined that all these would happen to us,” Rodney’s mother Maria told the Inquirer on Tuesday after their family arrived from Manila.
In her Sona, President Macapagal-Arroyo lauded Rodney for braving rampaging floodwaters and saving his mother Maria, 40, brother July, 7, and sister Jonna Mae, 3, after their house was swept by the flood early morning of June 21. He was chosen from among four potential honorees for the Sona.
But Rodney said it was but natural for him to help his family.
Unafraid
“I was not afraid for myself because I believed I could handle the water. But I was scared because July was separated from us,” he recalled.
Rodney was outside their hut at around 7 a.m. in Barangay Rumbang, around 50 meters from the Sibalom River, when he heard a rushing sound moments before their house was swept away.
Rodney, who learned to swim just last year, rushed to help July who was injured after a post from their house fell on his brother’s foot. He helped him climbed a stump of a camachile tree and told him to stay there.
But moments later, Rodney saw his mother, who was cradling his sister, being carried away by the flood. He left July and swam after his mother and sister but the water also carried him with it.
The three were later able to hold on to a drift wood as they struggled to stay afloat for more than two hours. While holding on to the driftwood, Rodney repeatedly tried to calm his mother down because she was struggling to stay afloat while holding on to Jonna Mae.
“Stay calm. Don’t move so much,” he repeatedly told his mother.
Ordeal
Maria said she was crying because she was afraid she would lose grip of her daughter. She was also worried about July.
Rodney decided to take off his shirt and pants so that his mother could not grab him.
Maria had difficulty staying afloat because she was trying to keep Jonna Mae above the surface of the water. She was also still wearing pants, which she refused to take off because she had kept P1,000 inside a pocket, her earnings from cutting bamboo trees.
After several hours, the water brought them near the riverbank where they were able to climb another camachile tree. They stayed on the tree for around seven hours until the water subsided.
“I prayed to God to help us while we were holding on to the tree. I feared that the water would still rise higher and reach us,” Rodney said.
Rodney’s uncle, Rodrigo, came for them around 4 p.m. He also fetched July who was still on the stump of the tree where Rodney had left him.
The family arrived around 6 p.m. at the village elementary school, which had been converted to an evacuation center. They stayed there for about a week.
Rodney returned to a hero’s welcome in his hometown in Belison in Antique on Tuesday.
Hero’s welcome
Hundreds of students, teachers, municipal employees and residents lined up the streets at the poblacion to meet Rodney’s family after they arrived from Manila and Iloilo, municipal social welfare officer Josephine Ann Dagay-loan said.
Officials also honored Rodney in a special program led by Mayor Vicente Piccio Jr. at the public plaza.
Maria said she is happy and proud of her son for saving them and for being honored as a model for other children.
“He is a good son and I never had problems with him,” she said.
Estranged from her husband, Maria has been struggling to feed her family by accepting laundry jobs and cutting bamboo and other trees in their village.
Rodney was forced to stop going to school after five months in Grade 1 to help his mother work.
But offers have come for Rodney and his family because of his feat.
Dagay-loan who accompanied the family in Manila said the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has offered a scholarship for Rodney. The local government also plans to provide an alternative livelihood for his mother.
The family will also be a beneficiary of the Core Shelter Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and will be given a new house.
Maria welcomed the opportunity for her son and family.
“I would want him to go back to school and get a college degree so he would have a better future,” she said.
Rodney, too, said he wants to go back to school and hopefully become a policeman someday.
“I want to help others,” he said.
