The 21-year old Cedric Sanchez and his 35-year old uncle Sonny Castro were pulling and lifting sacks of rice at the national repacking center at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
Instead of resting comfortably in their temporary residence after being evacuated from typhoon-hit Tacloban City, the two evacuees decided to help repack goods.
“Since we are not doing anything at home we decided to come here after watching a morning show on local television,” said Cedric who spoke in Tagalog.
The two came to Cebu last November 18 along with over a thousand evacuees from Tacloban City via a Philipppine Navy ship. It took them four days of waiting at the port of Tacloban to get a ride.
They were able to contact a friend who is living in Cebu City and asked if they could stay for a while. All family members are safe in Burawin town in Leyte. Both of them had to stay in Tacloban City to tend to their sari-sari store located across Leyte National High School.
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) provincial director for Negro Oriental Floro Rinca said they need more men to help in the repacking. “We have a lot of volunteers but most of them are women. We need more men for lifters,” Rinca said.