It was my first time to be in Guinsaugon five days ago, some two days before the anniversary of that unforgettable landslide that claimed thousands of lives in 2006.
Sad and unfortunate it may be, the untimely demise of Nanay Norberta, beloved mother of Fr. Generoso Rebayla, Jr., SVD, the equally beloved vice president for finance of the University of San Carlos, was the occasion to visit St. Bernard to condole with the family and attend the requiem mass a day later.
The world may have forgotten that tragic day nine years ago yesterday when the sun came out Friday morning after two weeks of incessant rain. An hour before noon, one barangay was forever erased from the Philippine map. But the people of the town of St. Bernard, whose population was drastically reduced that fateful day, will never forget. Ostensibly, any first-time visitor to the town is always urged to visit the site now covered with 300 hectares of earth that poured down from an innocent-looking mountain called Can-abag after a very weak earthquake of magnitude 2.6 struck the area.
The landslide not only erased Guinsaugon, it also triggered the forced exodus of neighboring barangays sitting at the foot of the mountain, which had been inexplicably but thankfully saved from the tragedy. Residents of these barangays are now housed far from their farms and rice lands that they still till under the shadow of Can-abag. But the government has forbade them from settling down permanently in their old abodes.
Our visit was brief but nonetheless memorable if only for the fact that it was not the site, now covered over with lush vegetation, that was striking. We were told that if we had come two days later, there would have been hundreds converging there to hear mass and remember. I was actually struck by a roofless two-story, 12-room school building at the Tambis National High School. St. Bernard had apparently not been spared the tragedy of Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and six classrooms could no longer be used because its roof and trusses had flown off.
(A quick posting on Facebook asking for help yielded immediate results – proof that if only people know how to use social media, perhaps tragedies like these can be assuaged a bit by those willing to help.)
It was here at this national high school in Tambis, just across the river from the site, where students from Guinsaugon saw with their very eyes the tragedy unfolding as the mountain splintered and covered the barangay. One can only imagine the trauma they experienced.
As we bid our last farewells to Nanay Norberta at the beautifully landscaped St. Bernard Municipal Cemetery, one could not but notice a gathering of people at a slightly elevated section where a large white cross was set against a wall of dark granite tiles emblazoned with the words “Guinsaugon Mass Grave.” A mass for those mangled bodies, many of them headless and limbless, was about to start. This Holy Mass at this cemetery had to be held on the eve of the tragedy because another much larger gathering for Holy Mass was expected at the site of the tragedy.
What makes Guinsaugon not just a place of unforgettable tragedy for St. Bernard is the fact that a kind of celebration for women, complete with six lechons for lunch – a good measure of the number of people in attendance – was being held at the barangay gymnasium when the tragedy struck. It was not just a barangay affair. People from as far away as Maasin, I was told, were in Guinsaugon for that event. According to one elderly woman I talked to, it was as if every town in Southern Leyte was asked to contribute lives to the tragedy.
There were near-death stories, too. One attendee was right there at the gymnasium but had to go home to the poblacion in St. Bernard because she had forgotten something. The bus she was supposed to ride later forgot to fetch her. She was about to hail a motorcycle to Guinsaugon when the tragedy struck.
For the rest, however, luck was not on their side. On the ninth year of the Guinsaugon Landslide, say a prayer for them.
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Let me greet the local Chinese Cebuano community “Kung Hei Fat Choy” today as we all usher in the Year of the Wooden Goat.
The next 15 days, for those who really continue to observe the traditional Lunar New Year festivities, will be hectic and most interesting.
For those who only wish for a simpler celebration, a gathering of family members eating “tikoy” will do.
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