Family buries farmer amid rainstorm, floods

Family and friends of farmer Aderiano Guaro braved floods and heavy rains to bury him in Candoni town, Negros Occidental on Tuesday. Photo by Nick Lachica

BACOLOD CITY— Floodwaters and heavy rains did not stop the funeral of a 59-year-old farmer in Candoni town, Negros Occidental on Tuesday afternoon.

At least 100 relatives and friends of Aderiano Guaro walked nine kilometers from Sitio Paglaum in Barangay Payauan to the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church in Candoni for a Requiem Mass before he was buried at the municipal cemetery, said Nick Lachica, head of the Candoni Assistance on Rescue and Emergency Services (CARES).

“It was painful to watch the weeping family struggle to get their loved one, who they said died from tonsil complications, to his final resting place,” Lachica narrated.

According to Lachica, the pallbearers of Guaro’s casket braved almost shoulder-level floodwaters in Sitio Overflow at the boundary of Barangays Payauan and East Poblacion about  3:30 p.m. and walked another three kilometers to reach the church.

He added that the funeral marchers even passed through a section of the road where the water was above waist-level.

Lachica said the Candoni Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office and CARES has put up a lifeline at the overflow at 11 a.m. to ensure the safety of students and teachers crossing the area, as well as those who joined the funeral of Guaro.

On Tuesday, the southwest monsoon, enhanced by tropical depression Maring, brought on heavy rains in some parts of Negros Occidental, said Isagani Republica, weather forecaster of the Provincial Disaster Management and Program Division. /kga