ILIGAN City ― “I could not control my tears.”
This was the gist of the statement of Veronico Echavez, barangay chair of Hinaplanon this city when interviewed by reporters hours after the ceremonies made at the site called Sendong Memorial Park at Bayug Island, Hinaplanon.
The said barangay to note, suffered the brunt of the fury of Sendong early morning of December 17, 2011, or eleven years ago. Echavez said that he ought to be happy on this day of Dec. 17 as this too is his birthday.
But remember that on that day over 500 residents in his barangay were reported dead or missing even as more than a thousand too overall were reported dead or missing throughout the city.
He said that he and some friends had been partying on that night when Sendong struck.
The occasion then, this 2022 of Dec. 17. was marked in the early morning at said Sendong Memorial Park with a holy mass officiated by Bishop Jose Rapadas III with residents here, especially the survivors offering wreaths and candles there. Echavez said he was among those present in said ceremonies. In the said park is a monument too which listed those who were reported dead or missing after Sendong. About 30 of the 44 barangay chairs were also present there, it was learned.
To recall too, many of the residents of said barangay evacuated to an overpass which is also located in said barangay.
Vice Mayor Marianito Alemania who was also present during the said memorial anniversary, also gave his thoughts on said occasion, among them, that the site could be converted into a tourist destination, like what some areas are doing in the wake of some great tragedy that befell them. Some tourist guides could be employed, he said and some memorabilia items could be made too.
Many survivors of Sendong are relocated to Sta. Elena Village, which belongs to the area of the shuttered National Steel Corporation which are now among the subject of concerns of the city as the Supreme Court has recently ordered the city “to desist from making acts of ownership” on the said plant.
