Inquirer Read-Along on Pinatubo day

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— “Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!”

At least 32 Grade 6 pupils shouted this each time Mayor Oscar Rodriguez asked them to approximate the noise from an erupting volcano.

Otherwise, the students were quiet, eyes and ears fixed on Rodriguez, the president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, as he read the story, “Bakit Pumutok si Pinatubo?” for an Inquirer Read-Along session on the 20th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on Wednesday.

Written by Inquirer correspondent Tonette Orejas, with the help of geologists, Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo and Dr. Renato Solidum, and illustrated by Don de Dios, the story helps disprove a misconception that was common among children who took refuge in evacuation centers and “tent cities” after the climactic eruptions on June 15, 1991.

The children thought the eruptions were a form of punishment for their bad ways, a fact that the defunct Teatrong Balen drew during stress-debriefing workshops through theater and art activities. The project, done in 50 evacuation centers, tent cities and resettlement areas, was funded by Oxfam and Canada Fund.

In the story, Doctor Noynoy helps the boy, Ramil, to throw the wrong idea that, at times, is spread by parents when they discipline children. He uses geology and the Philippines’ place in the Pacific Ring of Fire to explain why volcanoes erupt.

Rodriguez also shook a bottle of soda to show how magma rises.

After the read-along session, Precious Dimacali borrowed the bottle, shook it and passed it on to a classmate who, in turn, removed the cap. They laughed as the soda burst out of the bottle.

Because Mt. Pinatubo is just a name to his audience of 11- and 12-year-old children, Rodriguez also shared information on what it was like at the height of the eruptions and lahar flows.

To help them understand what lahar could do, he encouraged them to visit the San Guillermo Church in nearby Bacolor town. The church is half-buried by lahar.

Rodriguez, as Pampanga representative, fought proposals by legislators in the 1990s to transfer Kapampangans, who were displaced by the eruptions, to Palawan, Mindoro or Mindanao.

Dr. Ronnie Mallari, administrative officer of the city schools division, called as “heroes” those Kapampangans who did not give up in the face of the disaster.

He told the children they could be heroes too if they persist amid difficulties.

Mallari thanked the Inquirer for doing “an educational and informative” read-along session.

“The students enjoyed it,” said Teresita Tongol, the class’ adviser.

Mary Michelle Quiambao, president of the Parents-Teachers Association, said the information shared during the session would help the children understand volcanoes.

“It was very good. The kids learned what Pampanga and Kapampangan families went through. Now they know,” Quiambao said.

Girlie Gutierrez, an Aeta teacher based in Floridablanca town, would have read a second story in the session but she failed to make it to this city on Wednesday.

Gutierrez, however, promised to write her disaster experience for a book so others will know what the Aetas went through. She was in Grade 1 when the volcano forced her clan out of Barangay Nabuklod in Floridablanca.

“Bakit Pumutok si Pinatubo?” was first read during a simultaneous read-along session for the Inquirer’s 25th anniversary in December last year.  Inquirer Central Luzon