Good riddance 2013: It was a very deadly year

Finally… this is the very last day and the last column for month of December in the Year 2013… a year that will never be forgotten because of the untold misery that it brought our nation and our people. Of all the years, the Year 2013 was one of those years that so many of our friends and relatives died quite unexpectedly, that it lengthened my list for prayers for the dead. You can even call the Year 2013 as the Year of Death!

For our family, the Year 2013 started with the death of my first cousin, Alfonso “Ponsoy” Cañizares, on Jan. 6 who had a liver problem that troubled him from time to time…but I never expected him to go so soon as he was about my age. But this year, we saw many friends, very much younger than our generation, also passed away this year. Miguel Ouano, the best friend of my son JV, passed away last April of cancer. He was 24 years old.

Then the year 2013 ended with the untimely death of my mother’s brother, Col. Manuel F. Segura (Ret), the World War II hero in the family. Though he was 94 years old, just like my mom, he wasn’t sickly or was even under any medication. He attended a conference in Manila, then was admitted briefly at St. Luke’s then a couple of weeks later he was admitted to Asian Hospital when suddenly his systems just failed and he was gone. He would have been 95 years old tomorrow.

Last August, Cebu Harbor witnessed one of the nation’s most horrifying ship collisions off the Lauis Ledge, Talisay City when the M/V St. Thomas Aquinas of 2Go Shipping was hit by the Sulpicio Express 7 cargo vessel, killing some 116 passengers out of the 733 passengers and crew on board the passenger ferry. This was no ordinary sinking as the vessel’s tanks seeped its environmentally dangerous cargo of oil that spread menacingly along the seashore of Mactan Island’s fabulous beaches.

The Municipality of Cordova had to clean up its beaches from the oil spill, while the Philippine Coast Guard continued with its search and retrieval operations, while an undisclosed number of divers went down to siphon off the remaining fuel and oil in the sunken vessel’s mangled hull. This maritime disaster also revealed the necessity for the Port of Cebu to have a control tower on both sides of the Cebu Channel…. Something that the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) should have done a long time ago.

Then the unexpected happened in the morning of Oct. 15 at exactly 8:12 a.m. when a 7.2 magnitude on the Richter Scale earthquake struck Bohol near the town of Sagbayan and it also shook us in Cebu. I was about to take my breakfast when my house started to shake. I run into the balcony and held on to the railing for what felt like an eternity. Thankfully, my house withstood the effects of that earthquake, but many weaker buildings in Cebu City were destroyed. Most notable among them was the belfry of the iconic Sto. Niño Basilica de Minore and the City Hospital.

As reported by the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) there were 222 reported deaths, mostly from Bohol and a total of 976 people injured. Around 73,000 structures were destroyed or damaged. Perhaps the biggest damage was felt in the Tourism Sector in Bohol as the historic churches of Loboc, Baclayon, Loay, Dauis, Maribojoc, Tubigon and Loon were totally or heavily damaged… and with it Bohol’s major tourism destinations. Even the world famous Chocolate Hills were in various stages of damage through landslides.

Now as if we were not punished enough… then on Nov. 8, 2013, the unbelievable happened when Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) struck Central Visayas and made world history as the world’s strongest typhoon that struck the planet Earth! Yolanda made landfall in Guiuan, Samar, leveled it with its storm surge and passed through Tacloban City, crossing the mountains to Ormoc City, passing through Malapascua Island, Daanbantayan, Bogo City, Medellin, Bantayan Island, then all the way through Capiz in Panay to exit off in Northern Palawan.

This super typhoon brought out the greatness of the Filipino, especially our fellow Cebuanos, who were still helping the quake victims of Bohol, when they had to rush to aid our fellow Cebuanos in Northern Cebu, which was just as devastated as Leyte and Samar, except that they were not hit by a storm surge. People from all walks of life went to Northern Cebu packed with relief goods to help those in dire need of food and basic necessities.

But what Typhoon Yolanda gave us was that the international TV news coverage of this super typhoon brought the world’s eyes to the Philippines and exposed the sheer incompetence of the NDRRMC to handle a disaster of this magnitude. As of last count, Typhoon Yolanda killed nearly 8,000 people, when the NDRRMC stopped counting. Yes the Year 2013 was a totally disastrous year that brought untold deaths to our people and we bid it good riddance and welcome your hopes for the New Year 2014!

*  *  *

Email:  [email protected] or [email protected].