‘HELP ME FIND MY CHILD’

Like the fire victims in Lapu-Lapu City who are also anxious if they will be allowed back to the lot where they had lived for years to rebuild their houses, the people displaced in the Sitio Kamangahan, Barangay Labangon, Cebu City fire are also awaiting the decision of the owner of the lot on whether to allow them to rebuild their houses there.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

As 1,700 fire victims appeal for help, a mom struggles to find her missing daughter

As they set aside their worries of the possibility of not being allowed to rebuild their houses razed by Sunday’s fires in Cebu and Lapu-Lapu cities, the at least 1,700 fire victims turned to their immediate concerns and appealed to the government for help.

One of these fire victims in Lapu-Lapu City, however, has appealed for help in locating her eight-year-old daughter, whom she claims has remained missing since Sunday’s fire.

Francisca Nacional, a single mother of four children aged 15, 10, 8 and 1, said that she still has not seen her 8-year-old daughter Jacel since they were separated during the fire.

Francisca, whose arm and feet were burned in the fire, said that she thought Jacel had fled the fire scene and was with someone looking for a safe place and if she had been injured was hoping that somebody might have brought her to the hospital.

She expressed hope that she would be reunited with her daughter.

“Hinaut pa unta buhi pa siya. Nabalaka ko kay dunay reports nga nadala siya sa hospital (I hope she’s alive. I am anxious because we received reports that she was brought to the hospital),” said Francisca, who sustained burns on her legs and left arm.

“Kon kinsa man ang nakahibalo kon asa ang akong anak, pahibaw-a tawn ko. (Whoever knows the whereabouts of my daughter, please let me know),” said the single mom of four children, who is staying with her family at the Pusok National High School where the Lapu-Lapu City fire victims had taken shelter.

No human remains found

Senior Fire Officer 1 Hadji Samonte of the Lapu-Lapu City Fire Central District, however, said that fire investigators have not seen any human remains or charred body in the fire scene.

“Kon napatay ang bata sa sunog, duna untay nahabilin nga remains. Pero wala man g’yud (If the child perished in the fire, we should have found her remains. But there is really none),” he said.

Samonte believed that the child just went with another relative or a neighbor after the fire.

“Naa ra na. Nagkatibulag lang sa iyang mama. Tingali, gidala lang sa mga silingan (The girl is alive. She was probably just separated from her mother. Perhaps, neighbors brought her),” he said.

Francisca recalled that when she noticed the fire at the second floor of the house, she woke up her children and helped them out of the window and escape through the roof since they could not get down the stairs which was blocked by the fire.

When it was her turn to get out of the window carrying her one-year-old child, she stepped on a hot GI sheet causing the burns on her feet and arm.
Her two children also suffered burns on their feet and arms.

It was only later that she could not locate Jacel. She informed the firefighters about her missing daughter, but when the fire was put out at 8 a.m., the fire investigators could not find any human remains in the fire scene.

SFO1 Climaco Salisid of the Lapu-Lapu City Fire Department said that they did not include in their report a missing person because of the fact that they did not find any human remains in the vicinity of the house.

Nacional, for her part, said they also had yet to ask relatives if they had her daughter with them.

LGU slammed

Another fire victim, Dexter Dequit, whose home in Sitio Upa Matumbo, Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, was reduced to ashes, expressed dismay over the local government’s failure to reach out to them and provide them with their basic necessities.

Although they were given food after the fire, the 41-year-old driver said it was not enough to sustain their needs.

“Maayo lang na sila kon duol na ang panahon sa eleksyon kay mobisita g’yud. Apan kon moabot ang katalagman sama sa sunog, wala g’yud (They are only good to us during the election season and visit us during this time, but after that, and in times of adversities like this fire, they never visit us to ask about our concerns),” said Dequit.

CDN found Dequit busy gathering scrap metals from the place where his house used to stand so that he could sell them and earn money.
“Maayo na lang ni ipalit og bugas (We could use the money to buy rice),” he said.

Dequit, who has four children aged 13, 12, 9 and 7, has been residing in Sitio Upa Matumbo for two decades and it was the first time that a fire destroyed his house.

Dequit was among 1,500 individuals from 300 families that were displaced by Sunday’s fire that destroyed 130 houses in Sitio Upa Matumbo.

What they need

What the fire victims need now are food, water, clothes, toiletries and sleeping pads.

Samonte said the fire was caused by an unattended lighted candle at the second floor of the house owned by Nacional.

Dequit said the woman had her electricity disconnected several times after she failed to pay her electric bills.

As a result, Nacional, he said, kept using candles and a kerosene lamp to light up her house.

But Nacional denied the allegations, saying they just used cell phone lights, not candles, to light up their dark house.

The fire victims in Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, are temporarily housed at the Pusok National High School and were provided with meals, medicines and other basic services by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Lapu-Lapu Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer (LLDRRMO) Andy Berame said the fire victims are negotiating with a bank which owns the lot where their houses used to stand.

“If they are allowed to rebuild their homes, a reblocking should be made (to establish interior access roads and ensure fire trucks and emergency vehicles can enter quickly in case of another fire or other calamity),” he said in an interview over TV Patrol Central Visayas.

He also said that the fire victims would have to clear the school after five days and transfer to the Barangay Pusok’s Hoops Dome, which is a gymnasium, because the school had to be prepared and cleaned for the opening of classes in June.

He said that if the fire victims would not be allowed to return to the lot to rebuild their houses, the city government would allow them to stay at the barangay’s Hoops Dome until they could find a place to stay or transfer.

The fire victims are represented by an urban poor organization that is negotiating with the bank that allegedly owns the lot where they were staying.
Berame also said that the city government would give financial assistance to the fire victims.

Lapu-Lapu City’s DSWD listed 337 families made up of 1,442 individuals who were displaced by Sunday’s fire.

Labangon fire

In Sitio Kamangahan, Barangay Labangon, Cebu City, another fire devoured at least 33 houses, leaving 245 individuals from 59 families homeless.
No one perished in the fire.

Like the fire victims in Lapu-Lapu City, affected families in Labangon are also asking for assistance from the government and other people.

“Nabalaka mi. Asa man mi og panginabuhian (We are anxious. Where shall we make a living)?” said Mydelyn Monisit.

A number of fire victims in Labangon stayed under the tents by the roadside to watch over the lots where their houses stood.

Fire investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fire that started at the rented room of blind couple Dario and Joy Cabugngan.

Justina Estrada, owner of the small apartment, said Dario was heard having a heated argument with another person inside their room shortly before the fire broke out.

Dario, she said, was seen having a drinking session with friends while his wife went to the house of a relative in Lapu-Lapu City on Saturday.

She said Dario, a native of Bohol who finished the skills training program of the DSWD in Labangon, has not returned to the place since then.

His wife Joy briefly went to the place after the fire but also left afterwards, Estrada said.

The area where the fire victims’ houses used to stand is privately owned. They hope that they can still rebuild their houses.

Blind victims

Among the fire victims in Labangon were 44 blind persons who stayed at rented homes. They underwent skills training in the nearby Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center (AVRC) of the DSWD.

Joel Licanda, 33, who lost his sight due to measles, said he and his family were sound asleep when their neighbors frantically woke them up.

“Wala g’yud mi nasalba. Ang akong gisigurado kay ang akong asawa ug anak (We were not able to salvage anything. I made sure that my wife and daughter were safe),” he said.

While taking shelter at the Labangon barangay hall, Licanda offered massage services to earn money.

“Grabe. Paita g’yud aning masunugan. Tanang nimong kinitaan, nawagtang (It’s too bad to be a victim of fire. Everything you earned vanished),” he said.