Rescuers unearth the dead body of a landslide victim in Barangay Masara. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
MAWAB, Davao de Oro (MindaNews / 16 February) – At 7:20 p.m. of February 6, Joey Sereño, 39, was at work, video-calling his wife Nenimel Raganet, 33, as he was on duty as an assistant ball mill operator at the Apex Mines in Maco, Davao de Oro.
Joey was asking his wife, as couples are wont to do in the breathing spaces between work, how things are at home. “Everything is fine,” Nenimel told him.
In the background, one-year-old Prime was calling out “Papa, Papa, Papa,” as she could hear her father’s voice on her mother’s speaker phone.
In another part of the small mining tenement, Christine “Kringkring” Cena, 28, was speaking with Liezel “Tata” Detomal, 37, at the latter’s house, a few houses from the Masara Barangay Hall.
Liezel was frying tilapia, the earthy scent of the frying fish filling the air as the two of them discussed evacuation plans if there was, Simba ko (God forbid), another landslide.
As early as Jan. 31, before the low pressure area over Mindanao, Masara had a small landslide that hit only up to the nearby river downhill. The initial slide did not reach their village, but the homes would eventually be evacuated later in the days leading to February 6.
“Whatever happens,” Christine recalled Liezel saying in Cebuano, “we take the children out through the back [of our houses].”
“Sa pirmero gyud, naa pa mi sa gawas ato,” Christine said. “Nag storyahanay pa mi anang Ate Tata, nag advise pa siya gani sa akoa, mag kina-unsa unsa daw, kay sigi man gud nag arya na ang bukid. Gikan pa anang 31. Ana siya mag kina unsa daw, sa likod gyud ta agi.”
(Translation: At first, we were still outside. I and Ate Tata were talking, she even advised me that in case something would happen, as the mountain was always moving since Jan. 31, we should go out through the back.)
There is no road at the back of their house, not even a backdoor. “But she said we should find an exit there to enable us to run farther,” she said in Cebuano.
Around this time, Orlando Malacaste, a security guard working at Apex Mines, arrived home for dinner, and hung out with Shaina, their 8-year old daughter.
Liezel’s house faces the direction of the buses of the Maria-Socio General Services Inc. and the barangay hall, only a few meters away. Around the time that the fried fish was cooked, there was a thunderous roar in the darkness of the village of Masara around 7:40 p.m.
“She had just finished frying the fish. She asked her child to bring the fish to the table, and then there was a loud noise),” Christine said.
It was the last time she would see Liezel.
In the darkness, the mountain roared, followed by a flow of rocks and mud.
There were at least two series of landslides, Christine said. The first slide was not as strong, so Liezel was able to bring her two children Chinchin, 3, and Shaira, 17.
“Kato nga higayuna, naa mi ato sa sulod sa kwarto, kay manihapon. Igo ra gyud mi nahuman ug panihapon. Nag-ilis ko sa akong bata mao juy diretso hugno ba. Pero kaluuy sa ginoo samad samad ra man among nadangatan (At that time, we were inside the room for dinner. We had just finished eating. I was changing my child’s clothes when the earth collapsed. But thank God we only suffered minor wounds),” Christine said.
Shaina and Orlando would be stuck at home, with the landslide rushing around their house.
To avoid the landslide, Christine carried her two children uphill towards a place the villagers call Uma ni Herda (Herda’s Crops). It is a steep climb uphill, and Christine carried her youngest John Kieffer, 2, in her arms, and her eldest John Terrence, 5, on her back.
The three of them would get bruises and scrapes after falling down several times as they climbed their way to safety.
Christine did not plan on scaling the nearby hill. But, seeing people avoid the dangers downhill, she and her children ended up with around 20 others walking up. “Nisunod na lang ko (I just followed),” she said, citing panic.
Meanwhile, upon hearing the loud noise, Joey instinctively ran home to save his family.
It takes around 15 to 20 minutes to walk from the Apex Mines to their house in Purok 1, Masara. That evening, Joey ran the entire distance in seven.
‘We could hear the injured and the dying’
Christine swore the survivors who made the top of the hill their sanctuary could hear moans crying out for help. Whether these were from under the ground or not, there was no way to know. It was pitch black, power was out, and, even in the aftermath of the rockslide, it was impossible to tell what was what without equipment.
The survivors uphill spent the night there. By 11 p.m., Christine said, they could hear shouts in the dark.
“Gapaminaw na mi sa mga tao nga, kana bitawng mga buhi pa sa ilalom na nagapangayog tabang (We were listening to the people who were below the ground, alive and asking for help.),” she said.
“Pirmiro, murag iro sila paminawon nga ga uwang. Pero daghan man gud kaayo nagtingog, daghan gyud kaayo. Madungog gyud namo kay lanog na man (At first, they sounded like dogs howling. But there were so many voices, so many. We could hear because it was so loud),” she said.
Their location would have a vantage point of the disaster, but there was nothing to see.
By daybreak, 5 a.m. the next day, the survivors made their way towards engineers and rescuers from Apex waiting at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help church nearby.
“Wala man mi gisugat, kami ra naningkamot baba padulong sa simbahan. Simbahan didto sa amo. Ang mga rescuer, didto man nag atang. Kay didto lang man ang wala maabtan sa landslide (They did not meet us, we were the ones who went down toward the church in our place. The rescuers were waiting there because it was the only spot not reached by the landslide),” Christine recalled.
Burying the dead on a day of love
Joey is the sole survivor in his family. The rest – his wife Nenimel, children Mil Joy, 12, Cristin Rose, 7, and Prime, one year and two months – perished that night. He spent Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, burying his wife and one of his children, availing of free mass burial services offered by the neighboring Municipality of Mawab.
Nine others from his wife’s clan were confirmed dead in the days that followed the Feb. 6 landslide: Ramil Raganet, 28; his wife Angel Mabandos, 26; and their daughter Ramela, 5; and April Mae Raganet-Lorica, 26, her husband Ronald Lorica Sr., 38, and children Ron Trex, 14; Ronald Jr., 10; Gerald, 9; and Jon Rex, 6.
April Mae, her husband, and sons Ronald Jr. and John Rex were also buried on Feb. 14.
“I thought my wife would return since there are rescuers. I didn’t lose hope. Since the incident happened until morning and until we were evacuated I waited and waited. I thought they would return, no one did,” Joey, who hails from Quezon City and moved here to be with his loved ones, said in Filipino during the interview with MindaNews at the burial.
Along with the rest of the survivors, Sereno would be moved to the Lorenzo Sarmiento National High School evacuation center in Mawab.
Christine Cena’s entire family survived the ordeal. But her neighbor Liezel and her daughter Shaira did not. Their family buried them the same week their bodies were found.
Meanwhile, Malacaste and his daughter Shaina survived, but his wife died in the second wave of the landslide and was buried according to Muslim rites.
Shaina is now with relatives while his father has remained at the Lorenzo Sarmiento National High School evacuation center to avail of assistance.
Sixty hours after the landslide, rescuers, family members, and other concerned citizens became hopeful after a 3-year old girl, Sheila “Chinchin” Malacaste, was found alive by a K9 unit stationed at ground zero.
Chinchin is staying with relatives in Tagum City for her privacy and safety. (Yas D. Ocampo/MindaNews)
