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Philippines |
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8 YEARS AFTER BIG BANG
Neglect hounds
Pinatubo victims |
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Source: Inquirer |
Author: Tonette Orejas |
Date: 1999-06-14 |
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EIGHT years ago today, Mt. Pinatubo,
one of the highest peaks in the Luzon
volcanic arc west of Zambales,
violently heaved back to life after 500
years of slumber.
Farmer Pacifico
Dimasungcal's images of
danger, destruction and
death of that eruption remain
vivid until now:
''The earth shook minute after
minute, and it felt like you
were a ball being dribbled.
My family and I huddled
together, prayed in the
kitchen, the safest place I
could think of in case the
roof fell. By about 2 p.m., it began to turn dark. I sensed death
with that strange darkness. Then it rained ash.
''In San Vicente (Bacolor in Pampanga), some of my neighbors
began evacuating, braving the wet ash that drenched their
bodies. They left the village but without any idea where to go
to. My children were trembling, crying in fear. I did not have
answers when they asked me what was happening. I simply
knew Pinatubo was erupting as the radio announced.
Gray everywhere
''In the village, almost everyone was crying and never slept or
ate that night. The roof was heavy with ash which I feared
would fall any minute. The next day, the big ash cloud that I first
saw on June 12 was gone, blown by the rain and winds of
(typhoon) 'Diding.' It was gray everywhere, I thought I was in
another place. I rushed to see the farm. I cried. Overnight, all
that I worked for (through the) years were gone, buried by
ankle-deep ash.
''Fishermen were also crying. All that was in the Pasig-Potrero
River were ash and stones and charred tree trunks. In the
market, people were panicking, buying rice, canned goods.''
It was not to be the last of Dimasungcal's brush with death.
The eruption was actually just the start of a natural disaster
whose scale of displacement and extent of destruction have
never before been experienced in Central Luzon.
Expectedly so because Pinatubo's eruption, which began on
April 2 and climaxed on June 15, was this century's second
largest volcanic catastrophe.
Some 2.1 million people were displaced and more than 1,000
were killed by this once inconspicuous volcano which straddles
the boundaries of the highly populated provinces of Pampanga,
Tarlac and Zambales.
Destruction
The eruption buried 18,000
hectares of forest land and
96,000 hectares of farm
land. It destroyed 364
villages and damaged P3.8
billion worth of
infrastructure.
But beyond the staggering
statistics of damages,
Dimasungcal gauges the
disaster in a different way.
To him whose life is tied to
the land, the losses are incalculable and far-reaching. The
disaster meant not having any land to till in the next years. It
meant finding other means of survival. It meant developing new
skills to keep the wallet and soul together.
To the Aetas like Makara dela Cruz whose spiritual abode is Mt.
Pinatubo, the eruption spelled detachment from Apo Namalyari,
their god.
Displaced from their defined setting of resources, the Aetas
were forced to live longer on the mercy of others than
lowlanders did. Others resorted to begging.
Calm
Mt. Pinatubo has ceased to be the furious volcano that it was
eight years ago. What's left of it today is a calm crater where an
enthralling lake has formed.
Still, whether in the Central Luzon plains or in the mountainous
terrain of Pinatubo, the weight of the tragedy is still heavy on
Dimasungcal and Dela Cruz.
But like tens of thousands of Pinatubo victims housed in 23
lowland and upland resettlement sites and those who have
chosen to start life anew elsewhere, they have stood up to the
challenges of rehabilitation.
Where land has been scarcer and opportunities for productive
work more nil under the economic crisis, Pinatubo victims have
developed a remarkable ability to bounce back from the disaster
even with very little support from outside.
Many have returned to lahar-laden farms or worked on
borrowed or leased plots, tilling these when possible. Even in a
harsh environment, the Aetas have found means to revive their
farms around the volcano more on their own than on the
support of private groups or by government agencies.
Labor market
Others have abandoned farming and have joined the labor
market as grass cutters, janitors, security guards and
construction workers.
On dry months, Aetas and lowlanders leave the resettlement
sites to revive farms or gather forest products.
To Dimasungcal and Dela Cruz, the urban-designed resettlement
sites or the productivity centers in those sites or the billions of
pesos given to disaster response are not their gauge of
recovery.
''Look at us, we are even poorer. And if we are surviving, that's
because of our own efforts,'' said Dimasungcal.
''We're still not able to send our children to school because the
land does not yield much harvest. And the few harvests that we
are able to get are bought at very cheap prices by merchants,''
said Dela Cruz.
To Dimasungcal and Dela Cruz, uncertainty does not stem now
from the eruption's attendant twin hazards of lahar and floods.
To them, it stems more from the government's
infrastructure-oriented response to the disaster.
''There are homes, roads, dikes because I suppose that's where
the money is. But there are no lands to till, no farming support,
few alternative sources of livelihood,'' Dimasungcal said.
Dela Cruz has a another name for it: Neglect.
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