Heartbreak as Albay families wiped out

Antonio Gaupo’s joy at discovering his daughter Elizabeth had survived the lethal mudslide was short-lived.

The 52-year-old was overcome with relief outside what remains of the family home in Padang in Albay. Then he was told his four-year-old granddaughter Kayla was still missing and presumed dead.

Their house is now a mass of rubble, much of it covered in a thick coating of gray ash and mud that swept down from the slopes of Mayon volcano at the height of last week’s super typhoon "Reming."

"Look at this place, it’s gone. All that is left are memories," said Gaupo as he dug out a tattered picture album showing the family in happier times.

Gaupo built the modest bungalow from his earnings as a farmer and with help from relatives in the United States.

Located on the edge of a vast, scenic farmland in the village of Padang at the foot of Mayon volcano, the brick house was the pride of the family.

"I don’t think we will be able to rebuild here," he said, stealing a teary glance at Elizabeth, who sits on the ground holding a broken brown coffee pot and a collection of mismatched plastic kitchen utensils and containers.

The teenager was not at home when Reming struck, dumping heavy rain that loosened ash, boulders and rocks from the slopes of Mayon, entombing hundreds of people, many of them alive.

Elizabeth said she had been wandering for two days, lost in the confusion, as rescuers were slow to respond because power and communication lines were cut.

Dazed, she wandered back to the house to find her father trying to salvage whatever he could. All other Gaupo family members are alive and have been relocated to a safer area.

"We will try to start over again, but we absolutely have nothing anymore," Gaupo said. Michelle Tolosa returned home to find a huge boulder on the spot where her house once stood and news that her father, mother and 15 other brothers and sisters and extensive network of relatives were all gone.

In shock, she found an elderly neighbor Estrella Balectar, who told her the monster mudslide "swept everyone away" into the nearby Pacific Ocean.

"There were a cluster of 15 houses where we lived, and it’s all gone," Tolosa said, as she and Balectar locked in a tight embrace and cried.

Balectar, 50, is also grieving the loss of 15 family members, including her husband, father, nephews and grandchildren.

"This is the worst disaster here, not even my parents have seen anything like this," she said. Both are now temporarily staying at a school building transformed into a makeshift camp.

Slogans painted on a nearby stage proclaim Padang as  "Always Ahead," in a stark contrast to the now desolate landscape.

Rescuers and volunteers say some 2,500 people were in the village census. Now, 167 are officially missing and feared dead, while 105 bodies have been recovered, said Jason Battaler, a village official coordinating relief work.

The survivors walked kilometers to reach the nearest rescue center, their backs loaded and often stumbling on the piles of rocks and coarse ash and sand that stuck to their bare feet.

Construction equipment, including an excavator, lie smashed and half buried, reduced to useless mangled steel.

The village chief is missing, and Battaler has been marshalling volunteers for two days. A lone helicopter hovers above, surveying the damage, but the soldiers and other rescue volunteers have yet to arrive to begin a massive search operation.

Battaler led tired and weary villagers to a remote spot where the stench of decay was strong.

Using spades and their bare hands, they dug out the bloated remains of a man, but had to leave it behind because they lacked the strength to carry the load.

"We are begging for faster relief assistance. We need excavators and crews, we need food. We need your help," Battaler said.

A group of women set up a temporary information unit under the shade of a broken house, scribbling the names of the dead and the missing. "This task is unbearable," he said.

Bare hands

Rescuers, some using their bare hands, combed mud-stricken villages on the slopes of the Mayon volcano yesterday. Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez said the ground was too slippery for backhoes and rescuers had to dig with their hands and shovels to retrieve bodies.

"There’s no choice but to dig by hand," he told radio dzBB. "Practically speaking, we are not very optimistic we’ll find survivors."

"They have been buried under sand and boulders, I don’t think they can survive. It’s impossible for anyone to survive," Guinobatan Mayor Juan Garcia said.

Many bodies, mangled and unidentified, were quickly buried in mass graves to prevent them from decomposing in the tropical heat.

The National Bureau of Investigation sent an 11-man forensic team to Albay. NBI’s Renato Bautista said using DNA tests to determine the identities of many of the victims would be expensive and would take months to complete. But he stressed the P20,000 expenses for each cadaver would be shouldered by the government.

Gene Villareal, an Albay official involved in the rescue efforts, said a mass grave was a necessary precaution. "We opted to do this because we might have an epidemic, which could be expected because of the high number of evacuees and homeless," AP quoted him as saying.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) confirmed 450 dead, 507 injured and 599 missing in the rest of the Bicol region.

NDCC executive officer Glen Rabonza said more than one million people had been affected by the disaster with damage to property alone estimated at about P274 million.

The National Transmission Corp. or TransCo said restoring damaged facilities in Bicol would reach P800 million. At a press conference, TransCo president Arthur Aguilar said the estimate is on top of the P175 million needed to rehabilitate facilities damaged by Milenyo.

The Philippine National Red Cross is appealing for more water, food, and medicine for survivors. "We are receiving donations from international organizations at this point as we continue to estimate the cost of this disaster," Benjamin Delfin, a local PNRC official said. PNRC head Sen. Richard Gordon said he had requested the military to send a C-130 aircraft to Aceh to pick up a water purifying equipment. Bureau of Customs commissioner Napoleon Morales said seized smuggled items had been sent as relief goods to ravaged areas. "This is upon orders from Malacañang," Morales said.

After surveying the blackened wasteland, Spanish rescue volunteer David Quintana was pessimistic. "If it would be like this, chances are zero because you cannot breath, there is no air," he said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque warned residents to boil water before drinking to prevent the possible spread of cholera and diarrhea. No outbreaks have been reported so far.

"Many residents take their water from deep wells. We hope they boil the water before drinking," he said.

As the extent of the disaster became clear, President Arroyo on Sunday declared a state of national calamity, allowing the government to rapidly release funds needed to bolster search and rescue efforts.

"We are no strangers to this kind of tragedy, and we have always been able to recover and become stronger," she said in a statement yesterday.

France, Pakistan grieve for victims

French President Jacques Chirac said he was "filled with consternation" after learning of the typhoon’s "terrible death toll."

"In these painful circumstances, I wanted to convey to you and to the Filipino people, the solidarity of France and my sincere condolences."

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said he was "deeply shocked" by the news of the tragedy in Albay. "I am deeply shocked to hear the sad news of the tragic loss of precious lives and devastation of property caused by super typhoon Reming in eastern and central Philippines," Musharraf said. "On behalf of the government and people of Pakistan, and my own behalf, I wish to convey our deepest sympathies and condolences on this tragedy."

Typhoon Reming, which hit the Bicol region on Thursday with winds of up to 265 kph and torrential rains, was the fourth major storm to hit the Philippines in four months. It buffeted the Mayon volcano with so much wind and rain that ash and boulders cascaded down in walls of black mud, swamping entire villages.

The country received more offers of assistance from other countries. Japan is sending tents, blankets, generators and water tankers. Malaysia has dispatched a C-130 transport aircraft with 20 tonnes of medicine and food while Indonesia sent two aircraft with emergency aid. Ireland offered 300,000 euros or $397,000. "I want Ireland to respond quickly to assist agencies engaged in vital relief work taking place on the ground," Conor Lenihan, development cooperation minister, said.

Australia is to contribute US$780,000 initially while the UN is allocating between $1 million-$2 million for the purchase of emergency relief supplies.

On Saturday the Canadian government announced it was donating one million Canadian dollars for relief efforts.

The Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI) said earlier it was sending a C-130 transport carrying medicine, hygiene equipment, a field hospital, tents, blankets and equipment to provide and distribute drinking water. A medical team as well as aid experts left for the Philippines yesterday. The United Nations Children’s Fund or Unicef said it has "mobilized" $300,000 for emergency assistance to Albay.

Hazard mapping

At Malacañang, the President ordered the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to expedite the development of a national hazard mapping program to ensure the readiness of communities in dealing with disasters.

"It is another program that Secretary (Angelo) Reyes inherited as a work in progress," Mrs. Arroyo said during the launch of the "Human Development Report 2006" of the UN Development Programme. A hazard mapping plan, she said, will "help increase the capability of local governments for early warning and action."

She said she hoped rescuers would find survivors from the buried communities around Mayon. "We join the Filipino people in praying for that miracle of finding more survivors," she said. "We must not leave things to fatal luck when we can develop the tools to prevent harm.

"This is a time for unity and continuous action as we pour in more troops, medical personnel and volunteers as well as dispatch more equipment in the search and retrieval operations and facilitate direct assistance to the victims," she said.

In Camarines Sur, Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said his disaster preparedness program explained the fewer deaths and injuries in the province compared to other areas in Bicol. "Evacuation of residents in critical areas started early and we were even ready to effect a forced evacuation of residents who refuse to leave," Villafuerte said in a statement.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said his proposed P12 billion emergency legislation for typhoon-ravaged Bicol won endorsement from Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. He also renewed calls for ASEAN leaders to approve the creation of a multilateral ASEAN Anti-Disaster Fund and Reconstruction Agency.

Minority Leader Francis Escudero, for his part, sought the appropriation of P2 billion in emergency assistance for the mudslide victims.

"Our people in Bicol badly need help, and help should come when they need it most," the Sorsogon lawmaker said. He said pro-administration congressmen should set aside Cha-cha and focus on helping the typhoon victims.

The Albay tragedy has also sparked calls for the passage of House Bill 3472 seeking the establishment of a Philippine Emergency and Disaster Management Authority or Pedma. The creation of Pedma, said Leyte Rep. Eduardo Veloso, would help the country deal more efficiently with catastrophes. Veloso is the principal author of HB3472. He filed HB3472 in December 2004.

At the Senate, Sen. Ralph Recto urged the government yesterday to spend more for the rehabilitation of Reming-ravaged areas even if it would mean a spike in budget deficit in the future. "What’s the use of getting raves from Standard and Poors when our relief efforts will get bad reviews?" Recto asked.

"The bragging rights we would like to have is the one that can be directed at our people, and not to an analyst tracking our debt inside a cubicle in a building on Wall Street," he said. Jaime Laude, Paolo Romero, James Mananghaya, Percy Echeminada, Sheila Crisostomo, Evelyn Macairan, Marvin Sy, Edu Punay, Jess Diaz, Helen Flores, Christina Mendez, Celso Amo, AFP, AP