Talisay sea tragedy: One year after Ringing phone gives hope to kin of missing family

Her phone still keeps on ringing.  Could she be alive somewhere?

Eduard Libanon, whose wife and two children were among the passengers of the M/V St Thomas Aquinas listed as missing,  clings to  that hope a year after the ship sank after colliding with a cargo ship in Cebu.

“I know there is still hope I can find my wife and two children,¨ he told Cebu Daily News.

The collision between the Aquinas, a passenger ferry operated by 2GO, and the M/V Sulpicio Express Siete on the night of Aug. 16, 2013 left 116 passengers and crew dead and 21 others missing. Over 730 were rescued.

The ferry which came from Nasipit, Agusan del Norte was approaching the port of Cebu City when it crashed head-on with the freighter at around 9 p.m. at the vicinity of Lauis Ledge in Talisay City.

Libanon, 41, a factory worker from Valenzuela City, Metro Manila said his wife, Realyn, was travelling back to Manila from her hometown in Agusan del Norte, with her children Rea Cris and Ed Marcel.

Libanon was supposed to meet her family at the port of Manila, the final destination of the M/V St Thomas Aquinas.

The couple last spoke together  at 5 p.m.or about 4 hours before the collision.

“I called her after I found out about the accident, but the phone was out of reach,” he recalled.

Two weeks before the anniversary of the sea tragedy, a relative of his wife told him that Realyn’s phone was ringing.

“A relative accidentally dialed her number and it rang,” Libanon said. “I also tried calling her number  and it was really ringing. It gave me hope that it’s a sign that we could still find them.”

After several attempts, a Bisaya-speaking woman picked up the call, but the voice on the other line was not Realyn.

The woman said she got the number from a SIM card she bought.

The episode however, failed to totally dash Libanon’s hope of finding his family again.

“I want to recover their remains so we can  give them a decent burial and complete our cycle of grief. As far as I’m concerned, they’re still alive,” he said in Filipino.

Libanon, like most of the kin of the missing passengers and crew, have given DNA samples to forensic experts who continue to examine samples taken from unidentified remains that were temporarily interred at the Carreta Public Cemetery in Cebu City.

A year after the tragedy, Libanon will offer mass and light candles in memory of the dead and missing.

Libanon, who twice went to Cebu at the height of the search for the missing passengers and crew last year, said he had received almost a million pesos from her family’s insurance cover. He said he gave half of the proceeds to her wife’s family while the rest he’s kept in a bank.

¨Ano namang gagawin ko sa pera ko kung wala na ang pamilya ko? (What will I do with the money if my family’s not with me?),¨ he said.

Charmie Yee, whose five-year old son, Arkhi Gian, is among those missing, said the pain continues to linger. ¨Until now, the pain is still here. The incident is still fresh,¨ she said.

Arkhi Gian was supposed to take a vacation in Cebu where his mother works. Arkhi Gian got separated from her grandmother in the mad rush to abandon ship. The elderly woman survived.

According to Dr Glenda Basubas, president of the Philippine Mental Health Association, the prolonged grief especially among the kin of the missing could lead to depression.
“Processing grief is easier if there is proof of death,” she said.

The 2Go Group, in a letter to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, said they will be marking the tragedy with a series of Catholic masses in nine churches in Cebu and at the shipping line’s office at 3 p.m. today. A blessing of the tombs at the Carreta Cemetery will follow the prayer service.

“These ceremonies complement the many efforts we were doing to emphatize with the survivors and the families left behind by the victims,” Stephen R. Tagud, vice president of 2Go Group, said. /with a report from Correspondent Melissa Cabahug

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