Paying it forward for survivors of ‘Yolanda’

VOLUNTEERS deliver water purification units, hygiene kits and school supplies for children in northern Cebu affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” on behalf of telecommunications giant PLDT, which also set up free calling and charging stations. PLDT sister company, Smart Communications, also set up satellite communications services in the area. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—Boatmen, ferrying tourists to the popular Pagsanjan Falls in Laguna, donated P200,000 straight out of their earnings to victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in the Visayas.

In two weeks, 1,174 boatmen raised the amount, which, in several P100 bills, they handed over to GMA news anchor Jiggy Manicad.

Manicad, in turn, organized a “soup kitchen” to be held this week in Tacloban City, Leyte, and used the rest of the money to buy school supplies for children in typhoon-battered areas.

“Oh, ma’am, that’s just a little amount compared to the millions that other people donated,” Julius Guan told the Inquirer on the phone on Sunday. Guan, 40, was a boatman before he was elected councilor in Pagsanjan.

A boatman, he said, earns P400 from every tourist ride. A boat ride costs P1,250 but most of it goes to boat rental and other fees. Not all boatmen own boats.

Local tourist arrival in Pagsanjan peaks during summer and “many of them are from the Visayas,” Guan said. “We owe them our livelihood and this is now the time to pay them back,” he said.

Guan said the boatmen thought of giving the money to different groups helping in Tacloban, “but we decided the money would reach the victims directly through [Manicad],” who flew back to Tacloban on Monday.

Manicad’s initial purpose was just to bring the toys his daughters, ages 4 and 2, wanted to give the children there.

When the boatmen sought him, Manicad contacted hotel manager Jadway Go, 38, in Tacloban to help prepare food and school supplies for the donation. The two met last month when Manicad, along with the other reporters covering the storm, stayed in Go’s hotel.

Just as fear and tension gripped the city shortly after the typhoon, Go asked Manicad to take Go’s wife and children on the first C-130 flight out of the city.

“The crew grew hesitant and I understood that because everyone then was really scared,” Go said on the phone on Sunday.

“But [Manicad] said he wouldn’t leave without the children even if he had to give up his seat and stay behind. That’s something I would really remember,” Go said.

Eventually, Go’s family was flown out of Leyte and is now staying with relatives in Quezon City. But Go stayed behind, attending to 83 homeless families, who sought shelter in the hotel, and arranging relief distribution.

Last week, Go went to Catbalogan, Samar, and sought help from students to pack school materials bought with the money raised by the boatmen.

The soup kitchen, meanwhile, aims to feed 6,000 people in the remotest areas of Tacloban.

“It’s a long way to go but we’re getting there. The moment we stop fighting for survival, that’s when we lose our humanity,” he said.