TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte — With the exception of five people from Bohol province, only survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” ) coming from EasternVisayas will join Pope Francis for lunch during his visit to Leyte province next month.
This was confirmed on Tuesday by Fr. Amadeo Alvero, communications director of the Archdiocese of Palo, who said that of the 25 individuals from the region, 15 would come from the Palo archdiocese with the rest coming from Borongan and Calbayog.
Earlier, there was a report that of the 30 people who would join the Pope for lunch, 10 would come from Cebu province, which was also hit by Yolanda on Nov. 8, 2013.
The Archdiocese of Palo had no explanation as to why no survivors from Cebu would join the lunch with the Pope to be held at Archbishop’s Palace in Barangay Arado, Palo town.
“What we know is that the poor victims of Yolanda from the suffragans of dioceses of Palo and the victims of the earthquake from Tagbilaran (would be at the lunch),” Alvero said.
The Pope is scheduled to visit Tacloban on Jan. 17 and hold a Mass at the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in the morning of his arrival.
Tacloban is considered “ground zero” of Yolanda, the strongest typhoon to make a landfall in the world.
More than 2,200 people were killed in the city alone with over 600 still missing more than a year after Tacloban was pummeled by the typhoon.
From Tacloban, the Pontiff will motor to the town of Palo, where he will inaugurate the Pope Center for the Poor and join the survivors of Yolanda and the Bohol earthquake for lunch.
Alvero said that of the people who would join the Pope for lunch, 15 would come from the Archdiocese of Palo, and five each from the dioceses of Borongan, Catbalogan and Tagbilaran in Bohol.
For security reasons, Alvero declined to name the individuals picked to join the Pope for lunch.
“But all of them are really poor who lost their loved ones during the onslaught of Yolanda,” he said.
Bohol suffered extensive damage when it was hit by a 7.2-magnitude quake on Oct. 15, 2013, that killed more than 200 people.