“Bigla pong may narinig kaming ingay. Tapos nakita na namin yung bato at putik na umaagos. Dun po nakita yung magkapatid na namatay na magkayakap. Yakap-yakap nila yung kanilang alkansiya. Dun naman po nakita yung buntis. Kung di po kami nakalabas sa bintana, siguro patay na rin kaming lahat na magpapamilya ngayon.” (We heard a loud noise. In an instant, boulders and mud were flowing towards our homes. Rescuers found the bodies of two siblings who were locked in a tight embrace in that house. They were embracing a coin bank. The body of the pregnant woman was found there. Had we not been able to rush out of the our house through the window, we, too would have perished.)
Teener Jay-an Apudaca could hardly stop once he started telling his stories about the harrowing experience of death and destruction in the small barangay of Bano, Arayat, Pampanga. His face was devoid of any emotion. Words just kept pouring out of his mouth as he recounted the horror of the landslide that occurred on Saturday, September 26 at the height of Typhoon Ondoy’s fury which dumped 455 mm. of rainfall over a 24- hour period. PAG-ASA says the last time this occurred was in 1967 albeit at a lesser volume of 335 mm.
Jay-an and his family are now among the hundreds of evacuees staying at the Arayat National Park. They have nowhere to go, nothing they can call their own except the shirts on their backs. Residents of Brgy. Bano say that it was normal for floodwater to pass through their barangay from upstream. But this occurrence, this landslide totally caught them by surprise. “Did Mt. Arayat erupt? Or was it caused by illegal mining?” they ask, torn between shock and disbelief at what occurred high noon of Saturday. At least 12 persons died from the Bano landslide. Among them were members of the dela Cruz, Portacio, and Galang families.
“The children were watching TV. Then we heard their screams and shouts for help. By then, it was too late to help them because mud was rushing in at an unbelievable speed,” adds Jay-an. The proverbial sound of thousands of horses galloping in a rampage, along with creaking sounds that seemed to emanate from the core of the earth brought back memories of the Pinatubo disaster that devastated Pampanga in 1991. The center of destruction then was Bacolor and its neighboring municipalities.
Jay-an was one of the barangay folks who chanced upon the volunteers of Holy Rosary Parish-Social Action Center as they surveyed the damage caused by the landslide. Like the others, he was walking around what used to be a neighborhood of simple folks, all gone now to reside temporarily at the evacuation center. Muddied clothes, shoes, books, and remains of nipa houses littered the area, along with stones and boulders of various shapes and sizes. The ground was still wet and slippery when the HRP-SAC volunteers came on Tuesday to deliver a truckload of relief goods to the Parish of St. Catherine for the affected families in Arayat. With them were staff members of the Holy Angel University – Office for Community Extension Services (HAU-OCES) who came with an initial donation of goods, too from their academic community. The Social Action Center of Pampanga (SACOP) has, likewise, been monitoring the disaster and mobilizing resources for distribution among the affected parishes of the Archdiocese of San Fernando.
Learning of the situation in Arayat in the afternoon of September 27, Holy Rosary Parish Priest Bp. Pablo S. David and other priests assigned at the said parish immediately issued an appeal to Sunday mass-goers for donations in cash and in kind. Grateful, perhaps, for having been spared from the floodings, Angeleños/as responded overwhelmingly and with urgency filling the convent grounds with relief goods including old clothes, mats, blankets, slippers, instant noodles, canned goods, biscuits, candies, rice and medicines.
The first batch of relief goods was dispatched on Tuesday morning, September 29, with more to follow for other parishes needing assistance. Fr. Rey Cruz, Parish Priest of St. Catherine Parish received the goods in behalf of the parish community. The HRP-SAC volunteers were, then, brought to the affected areas including Brgy. Cupang where a portion of the protective earth dike (Arnedo Dike) is near breaching point as water continues to scour the sides and erode the soil. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has been rushing to fortify the dike through sandbagging with the help of residents. The dike protects Arayat town proper and neighboring towns from floods.
Barangay Baño, where the landslide occurred, used to be a popular destination among local tourists who came to bathe in the lukewarm waters of the Arayat National Park which boasted of a spring, a waterfall, and a legendary 100-step stairs leading to the top of the majestic Mt. Arayat. Nowadays, it has become a popular destination among mediamen and good Samaritans who come to visit the site of the landslide to gather information or extend a helping hand.
The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Pampanga reported on Sunday that 190 barangays in 20 municipalities and 1 city were flooded. By Monday, the number rose to 236 barangays in 18 municipalities and 1 city. The whole of Angeles City was spared from flooding and destruction.
Monitoring of the situation in Pampanga continues as two weather disturbances threaten to occur within this week even as Central Luzon and Metro Manila residents have yet to recover from the ill effects of Typhoon Ondoy.
