Father back in Cebu for missing family

HE arrived in Cebu last night for the second time around.

Eduard D. Libanon, 41, of Valuenzela, Manila is one of the relatives of the victims of the ill-fated MV St. Thomas Aquinas.

This time though, he has to pay for his boat fare and spend for his stay here in Cebu City as the 2GO shipping firm would no longer shoulder the expenses of his return trip.

Libanon went home last week to return to his job in a factory.

He told Cebu Daily News he wanted to come back hoping that his 27-year-old wife,  two-year-old daughter and five-year-old son will be found or identified.

As of yesterday, 111 bodies have been found and 29 are still missing. Of the dead, 48 remains are unidentified. Libanon’s family could be among the missing or the unidentified.

He got updates from the 2GO Manila office in Pier 4 while he was there, but thinking about his missing family weighed heavily on his mind.

“Hindi ako mapakali kaya gusto ko talagang bumalik sa Cebu,” he told Cebu Daily News.

(I was not at ease, I really wanted to go back to Cebu.)

Leave of absence

That was why he filed a two-month leave of absence and took the next 2GO boat to Cebu last Wednesday.

“Nag-advance na lang po ako sa kumpanya ko po ng pera para sa panggastos ko po sa Cebu” , he told CDN.

(I asked my company to advance my salary so that I’ll have money to pay for my expenses in Cebu.)

He said that he will just rent a room for the meantime while waiting for his family to be found.

His wife Realyn and children Rea Cris and Ed Marcel boarded the ill-fated vessel in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte after a visit there.

Libanon told CDN that he has come to accept his family’s fate but still hopes to recover the remains of his family.

He hopes the remains of his family will be found or identified before September 25, the 40th day after the August 16 sinking.

He plans to bring them to Nasipit. Even if they won’t be recovered he plans to move to Nasipit to offer mass and prayers on the 40th day.