Fire victims show strong faith for Sto. Niño amid tragedy

Victims of the Pasil fire including Maridol Dacua are staying at the Pasil Sports Complex while they are awaiting what to do to rebuild their razed houses.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

Barangay chief calls for more aid for 3,570 fire-affected Pasil residents

Maridol Dacua and her family will still celebrate Fiesta Señor even if they are now homeless.

“Mo-celebrate mi bahalang gamay lang (We will still celebrate the feast day of Señor Sto. Niño no matter how small our celebration will be),” Dacua told Cebu Daily News on Monday.

The Dacuas are among of the hundreds of families displaced by the fire that razed houses last Sunday in four sitios in Barangay Pasil in Cebu City.

Lea Japson, Cebu City Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) head, said that as of yesterday noon (Monday noon) they recorded 326 houses destroyed by the fire translating to 711 families or at least 3,570 individuals affected or displaced by the fire.

But Japson said that they still had to revalidate these data and these numbers so there would be the possibility that these would increase or decrease.

Pasil Barangay Captain Julius Guioguio said that with the number of families affected by the fire, the barangay was placed on a state of calamity on Sunday evening.

Guioguio said that putting the barangay under a state of calamity would also give the barangay officials access to the barangay’s calamity fund that they could use to help the affected families.

Guioguio said that for 2018, the barangay set aside P500,000 calamity fund.

This does not include the excess calamity funds in the past years.

“Amo pa i-assess unsaon namo pagamit ang calamity fund para sa nasunogan. Maghuwat sad mi sa final nga lista sa city (for the affected families) (The barangay is still assessing as to where we will use the calamity fund. We are also waiting for the final list of the affected families from the city),” Guioguio said.

Yesterday, the barangay and the city government distributed food, pack lunch, water and rice.

The village chief said that what the fire victims now need are clothes, personal hygiene, and utensils among others since most of them were not able to salvage their things.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña visited the fire victims yesterday and he said that he saw the need to reblock the area.

Osmeña also assured the residents that they would be able to go back to their areas and they would be given financial assistance.

Celebrate Fiesta Señor

Dacua, 40, said that it has been their family tradition to celebrate the feast day of Sto. Niño.

She said that even before she was born, their grandfather started the tradition of celebrating the Sinulog festival.

“Bisan sauna nga nasunogan pud mi dinhi 1988, akong papa wa gyud mosugot nga di mi maghanda. Bahalang gamay basta maghanda mi (Even before when our house here was also destroyed by a fire, my father really pushed through in celebrating the Sinulog. He did not care if we only had a small celebration),” Dacua said.

Dacua said that their family would still join the procession and the fluvial parade since they are getting their strength from the Sto. Niño.
Barangay Captain Guioguio also said that the barangay would also celebrate the Fiesta Señor.

He said that most of the devotees, who would join the fluvial procession, would be from Pasil, Suba and Sawang Calero.

With this, Guioguio encouraged his constituents to remain strong and continue to celebrate the Fiesta Señor despite what happened to them.