Evacuees from Leyte taken to Banilad gym

CEBU, Philippines - Thirteen families from San Joaquin, Palo, Leyte were the first to be accommodated at the Banilad gymnasium in barangay Banilad, Mandaue City.

The evacuees, belonging to a clan, were brought to the city by their leader, Sergio Pasican Bendoy, a former policeman now residing in Manila.

Bendoy was in Manila when super typhoon “Yolanda” hit Palo.

He lost 32 of his relatives, including his wife and two daughters, to typhoon Yolanda.

He said he will move the members of his clan to Manila.

Relief goods had not yet reached his relatives when he came to fetch them from Leyte last week, he said.

When they arrived at the pier area yesterday morning, they met an acquaintance who brought them to the Subangdaku barangay hall where they bought some food.

While they were eating outside of the barangay hall, barangay tanods saw them and learned about their plight, and wasting no time, the tanods called the City Social Welfare Service Office.

They were then taken to the gymnasium where they spent the time waiting for a boat ride to Manila yesterday afternoon.

Residents who learned about them donated food and things.

Bendoy’s daughter, Janessa, 22, said they sought refuge in the comfort room of their one-story concrete house, which was a kilometer away from the shore, when the seawaters came.

As soon as the water rose, they rushed to the rooftop. There, while clinging to one another, a big wave hit them.

Moments later, she learned that her two sisters, her mother, and other clan members were missing, she said.

They later found the bodies of her two sisters but her mother and other members of the clan remain missing. A sister-in-law survived but sustained a big cut on her back.

“The tragedy continues to haunt me and it will take time before we can move on,” she said, adding that before the typhoon struck, they lost a sister in a vehicular accident.  (FREEMAN)