Sequestered property’s doors shut on victims

THE STO. NINO Shrine after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” made a direct hit on Tacloban City. RAFFY LERMA

TACLOBAN CITY—Victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” had been barred from taking refuge at a sequestered piece of property that the Marcos family is claiming to be theirs but which the government has tagged as part of the family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Gonzalo Lu, a 33-year-old security guard at the Sto. Niño Shrine and Museum, said he and other guards refused entry to several people from Barangay (village) 52 and other villages as they were under strict instructions from Renoir Dauag, a representative of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), not to let people in the property.

The PCGG has taken over the property following its sequestration.

Lu said Dauag gave the verbal instructions to him and fellow guard, Cornelio Alvinta, on Nov. 7, the day before Yolanda hit Leyte.

“The people got mad at me. But as much as I want to allow them to enter the shrine, I could not do that. There were strict instructions so we have to follow them. We might lose our jobs it we did not follow the instructions,” Lu said.

Valuables

The imposing building, built in 1979 and finished in 1981, contained religious icons made of ivory, paintings by noted artists and a chair said to have been used by the late Pope John Paul during his visit to the Philippines in 1981.

Lu said the building had to be protected from looters because it contained important and historical items. “We know what happened in Tacloban after the typhoon, right?” Lu said, referring to the looting of business establishments across the city.

Lu said even PCGG personnel assigned to the shrine did not occupy the building but chose to stay at the power house within the shrine’s compound.

Aside from Lu and his family, nine other families of PCGG personnel, composed of 80 persons, were taking temporary shelter at the power house.

“That’s how we strictly followed Sir Dauag’s instructions,” Lu said.

While the building was safe from looters, 70 to 80 percent of the structure was destroyed by Yolanda, Lu learned from  Anabelle Arpon, chief of the 10 personnel assigned to the shrine.

Arpon was around when Inquirer visited the area but she declined to be interviewed, saying they were busy cleaning up the mess left by Yolanda.

Lu said the damage was mainly on the building’s roof and the ground floor.

The water level reached four meters deep, destroying items inside the 20 rooms on the ground floor, according to Lu. The second level of the building has another 20 rooms, which could have been damaged as well, he said.

Mud-covered

Lu, who was interviewed by Inquirer outside the hard wood door of the museum building, acknowledged that he has not personally seen the extent of the damage to the building as he himself has yet to enter it.

He, however, allowed the Inquirer to take a peek at the shrine’s ground floor area, which has wooden chairs in disarray and life-size images of Sto. Niño and the Virgin Mary covered with mud.

Thick mud still covers the floor, indicating that water had seeped into the grandiose building.

In the past, the shrine was open to the public at an entrance fee of P250 for a group of five persons.

The city tourism office has identified the shrine as one of the top tourism draw in Tacloban, whose current mayor, Mayor Alfred Romualdez, is a nephew of Imelda, former first lady and now legislator.

The former first lady is fighting the national government for ownership of the shrine, claiming it was part of her ancestral property.

Meanwhile, 96 families or 352 persons are occupying the nearby People’s Center and Library, another building constructed by Marcos.

Lu said that a rescue group that he could not identify, forcibly opened the gate of the white two-level structure hours after Yolanda destroyed Tacloban to allow evacuees to enter.

The evacuees were from the villages of 52, 50, 51, 54 and 48 in Tacloban City.

Josephine Vergara, 54, of Barangay 52, said that they would not do anything to destroy the building, which contains thousands of books and other reference materials on the second floor.

“We are here just to take temporary shelter. Perhaps one month, two months. We will not steal any items from the library,” Vergara said.

“We are aware that this building was constructed by Madame (Marcos) to showcase our history and for the students,” she said.

Vergara said the evacuees made sure the building remains clean by throwing their garbage outside.