HENRY Haffner was one of the many “volun-tourists” who consider the disaster-prone Philippines their second home.
The 31-year-old German industrial engineer had been to Bohol to help give aid to people affected by the October 2013 earthquake and in areas hit by supertyphoon Yolanda the following month.
He belonged to a group called Volunteers in Cebu where he met his girlfriend, Sheila Jane Gimutao, a Zamboangueña who is also an industrial engineer. They were together in relief mission in Tagbilaran City after the Bohol earthquake struck.
“We gave food, water, and medicine to the earthquake victims. He was among those who searched for supplies for the victims,” she told Cebu Daily News.
After supertyphoon YOlanda, the German who was in Palawan cancelled his travel plans and headed to Bantayan Island, north Cebu where he helped distribute relief goods, repaint schools and clear roads.
Gimutao said her boyfriend spent two months living among Yolanda survivors in Bantayan Island.
Haffner arrived in the country last Feb. 9 for a two-month vacation. He and Gimutao went to Zamboanga then Siargao before coming back to Cebu. He was planning to join a feeding program scheduled today in barangay T. Padilla in Cebu
City, but that would no longer happen after yesterday’s dawn shooting.
Haffner and Gimutao were having hot chocolate at McDonald’s in Tabunok, Talisay City where they waited for a friend who was arranging their trip to Oslob town when a commotion between two groups of customers rocked the 24-hour restaurant.