Town buried by lahar wakes up on Election Day
Bacolor residents dispersed by Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption and lahar flow since 30 years ago go back to their town to vote. Lourdes de la Cruz of Barangay Talba yearns to settle back in but cannot, for lack of money, build a house. (PHOTOS BY TONETTE OREJAS)
BACOLOR, Pampanga — The May 9, 2022 elections have added life to this lethargic town buried by Mt. Pinatubo’s lahar (volcanic mudflows) since the eruption 30 years ago.
Thousands of Bacolor residents scattered in 10 government-built resettlement sites returned to the ill-fated town on Monday to exercise their right to vote or to renew ties to their place.
Rogelio Calilung availed himself of a free jeepney ride from the Bulaon resettlement in the Pampanga capital of San Fernando to be able to vote at Bacolor Elementary School.
The town has 49,279 voters as of 2019, with 100 or so residing in Barangay Concepcion where chicken layers are as many as 50,000 pieces.
Bacolor residents dispersed by Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption and lahar flow since 30 years ago go back to their town to vote. Lourdes de la Cruz of Barangay Talba yearns to settle back in but cannot, for lack of money, build a house. (PHOTOS BY TONETTE OREJAS)
“Elections are the only time I come back to my old hometown,” said Calilung, a 62-year-old electrician.” He and his family resettled after a 20-meter high lahar crawled and overflowed from the Pasig-Potrero River on Oct. 1, 1995 at the height of Typhoon Mameng.
“I want to come back to my original village of Cabambangan because it is noisy in Bulaon,” he added.
The likes of Aurora Pamandanan and Lourdes de la Cruz, both of Barangay Talba, also come home from Madapdap resettlement during the feasts of the dead, day of the patron saint William the Hermit (San Guillermo) and Our Lady of La Naval.
In Pamandaman’s case, she could not go home because the landholdings in the village are grown with sugarcane. In De la Cruz’s case, she doesn’t have enough money to build a small house.
How many have actually returned to the 21 villages, including those trapped inside the 56-kilometer FVR Megadike is not known. INQ
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