Employees of Leyte Park Hotel (above) release sky lanterns into the air to commemorate the first anniversary of the onslaught of supertyphoon Yolanda. (INQUIRER PHOTO)
Survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda yesterday shed tears in celebration of life as they descended on mass graves to mark one year since the storm took away their loved ones and devastated much of central Philippines.
But even as they thanked God for surviving the strongest typhoon ever to hit land, at least 36,800 survivors held protests in Tacloban City, Cebu, Iloilo, Capiz and Aklan to decry the slow pace of the rebuilding of their ravaged communities and alleged lack of assistance from the national government.
“I woke up early just like on any other day to earn a living. I still shiver when I remember what happened on this day last year. But we are thankful that we are still here, alive,” said Milagros Belonia, 54, a survivor in barangay Botongon in Estancia town, Iloilo.
In Tacloban City, relatives of the 2,273 people who perished in the storm offered prayers and lighted candles at a mass grave at Holy Cross Memorial Gardens in barangay Tigbao. Virgilio Omega, 58, and his wife, Erlinda, 58, went to the mass grave although their daughter, Fe, remained missing. “We know that the body of our daughter has yet to be found. We just console ourselves by thinking that she could be among the bodies buried here,” Erlinda Omega said.
Aurora
In Palo, people woke up to the mournful pealing of bells as the solemn remembrance of the 1,600 residents of the town who died in the storm began.
Just like a year ago, before the storm struck, Palo Archbishop John Du led the aurora—early morning procession—around the town, with the parishioners’ faces faintly illuminated by the lighted candles they carried.
9-year-old Mark Diego Alcain (left) lights a candle before the crosses with the names of his mother, Eva, and sister, Marian, whose remains were among those interred in a mass grave at the Holy Cross Memorial Park in Tacloban City. (INQUIRER PHOTO)
Residents of remote villages arrived as early as 4 a.m. at the Palo Cathedral to join the relatives of those who died in the storm at the Yolanda Memorial, the first of three mass graves in the town where close to 200 victims were buried.
More than 2,000 people joined the memorial service and attended the Mass celebrated by Du.
After the Mass, Du blessed the new memorial as well as the grave markers with the names of those buried there.
Later in the day, the coastal villages of Candahug, Salvacion, Cogon and San Joaquin—where most of the victims lived—went into a celebratory mood as the relatives of those who died held feasts to mark the end of the traditional year-long mourning period.
As the day ended, the relatives tossed flowers to the sea and sent small, candle-laden boats sailing along the shores of the four villages.
In Tacloban, Mayor Alfred Romualdez said 2,474 people perished based on the number of death certificates issued by the city civil registry.
At least 2,273 were buried in a mass grave at the Holy Cross Memorial Park. The rest were buried by their loved ones in front of their houses.
Romualdez said some of the fatalities were foreigners.