‘Sendong’ survivors face new year with hope

Bobby Lagsa/Inquirer Mindanao

CAGAYAN DE ORO—While there is talk of election recall and making local officials account for the devastation that happened in this city, survivors in evacuation centers simply think about how to move on with their lives.

Marilou Hamo, a resident of Lower Tambo in Macasandig village, has only one wish: to move to a new house.

Hamo doesn’t mind if the relocation site is far from her two children’s school. Her immediate concern is that everything she has is now lost, including her children’s school uniforms.

“I will have to go with them to school on Tuesday and explain to their teacher why they are wearing only slippers and  tattered clothes,” she said.

Time to clean up

The survivors are slowly picking up what remains of their lives. Some still hope they will find loved ones still missing.

Riza Bacarro, of Barangay (village) Macasandig, volunteered to be a part of a cleanup team in Villa Angela, Lower Balulang. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has organized a group of community  workers for this. Bacarro said her former neighbors had been sweeping mud and trash in the main streets since Christmas Eve.

“We are being paid P215 for a day’s work,” Bacarro said. “I have not gone back to my  old job since the flood so I thought that it would be a good thing to earn this amount by cleaning up the barangay.”

Relief goods

Residents of Lower Balulang also complained that relief goods had not been  distributed properly. On Thursday, Gawad Kalinga, Light of Jesus Community and the Ayala Foundation distributed goods to residents  of Villa Angela.

According to Sofie Bibe of Ayala Foundation, they were instructed by barangay officials to distribute coupons to residents, instead of relying on the yellow cards issued by the DSWD. The scheme has created confusion among the residents as many of those with DSWD cards failed to receive their share of the relief goods.

Amalia Cabugatan, a resident of Balulang, claimed the man handling the coupons was hoarding most of them. The Philippine Daily Inquirer saw some residents confronting the man about the matter.

DSWD cards

Resident Ma. Luisa Jimenez said this had been happening in Lower Balulang since last week. She said the DSWD cards had become useless because coupons were now being used.

“A lot of us, especially the senior citizens, do not always get their share of goods because they are always distributed to those who are not even registered in this area,” she said.

Keena Fernandez, 18, has been assigned by her family to queue up for the relief goods.

“I am often not successful because the barangay is disorganized. I just wish they would be fair in giving us what we need,” she said.

Special breakfasts

Angelina Estrada, a 56-year old grandmother, said her wish for the new year was a new house. “Everything that we owned was washed away and we have nothing, not even a spoon or cooking pot,” Estrada said.

On the last day of 2011, the DSWD distributed “special” breakfast packs of fried rice and  corned beef.

“Since we moved in here after the flood, we had noodles and sardines. This is something special for the new year,” evacuee Liza Lopina said of her breakfast.

Lopina hopes to be out of the evacuation center at City Central School by the new year.

“I wish we will have a new house for 2012, wherever that may be,” Lopina said. She said her husband was also fixing his tricycle so he could get back to work.

Antonia Diaz, 77, was also looking forward to moving into her son’s house, which had been flooded and still being cleaned up.  Cai Panlilio and Bobby Lagsa, Inquirer Mindanao