One of about 390 families (out of a total of more than 6,000 at the Malobago Evacuation Center and elsewhere in Albay) who received a pack of goods worth about 500 pesos on January 12, 2007. Happiness is written all over her face. For many of them happiness is a relief pack.

Fr. Oliver Castor, CSsR, head of the relief operations center of the Redemptorist priests under the network called MAYON DISASTER RESPONSE NETWORK (MDRN), explains the Christian philosophy regarding the giving of relief goods as well as the mechanics of relief operations. The relief center is housed at the Redemptorist church compound in Cogon, Legaspi City.

Photo at right shows members of Albay High School Class 1961 assisting in the distribution of relief goods. About 14 members joined in the relief work.

The fraternity's name acquires a 21st century aura to it when thus mispelled. The young staffer at the Redemptorist office who designed the relief coupons must be a computer game enthusiast who thought Beta Epzilon, ezte Epsilon, az zome kind of a futuriztic fraternity. Zhe was not miztaken for thinking zo and  her tyoprgaphcial  error iz forgiven.

Legaspi-based brods Dexter Atutubo '66 and Manual "Boy" Navea, Jr. ''74B with Mon Ramirez '63 at the Malobago Evacuation Center at the TabonTabon Elementary School.

     It would entail a lot of work if we had to do the relief work ourselves. That is why we partnered with an existing relief network, the MDRN, which includes the Redemptorist priests, the nuns of the Religious of the Good Shepherd and the Rural Missionaries, and various corporations like Microsoft.

     Fr. Oliver Castor, CSsR, is in charge of the relief office inside the Redemptorist church compound in Cogon, Legaspi City. It was Fr. Oliver who recommended the contents of the relief pack (photo below) which we followed as a new partner in the network.

We were just curious how they have been doing the various aspects of relief operations. We thought we could learn something by joining their purchasing team at the Legaspi City Public market where more than 60 sacks of good quality rice and boxes of canned goods  were purchased.

The MDRN has rooms for storing goods and packing them. At the time that we had our relief work the volunteers had already left to go back to school. We had to hire about 10 packers to do the job of packing and transporting them in 3 rented jeepneys to the evacuation site. Photos show the jeepneys all set to go.

 
How the Beta Epsilon Relief Project started

and got implemented

Our relief project started with the BENA (Beta Epsilon North America) brods. Here is the account of Brod Marcelino Martinez, Jr. BE '53 posted as an email:

------

In one of your messages, you requested me to write a brief note on what motivated me to start the Typhoon Durian Relief Fund.

I was sitting confortably at home one day last November reading the Los Angeles Times when, on page 3 under the World In Brief, there was a 2-inch column article about Typhoon Durian ravaging the southern part of the Philippines. The article was lacking in detail, just mentioning casualties as "over hundred death and rendering millions homeless".

Right away, I emailed my sister in Q.C. requesting her to give me details about the Typhoon. She responded by sending me a coverage of the Typhoon from one of the local papers. It was then that I realized how extensive the devastation was to the people and their homes.

In recent disasters like the Tsunami in Indonesia and Huricane Katrina in Louisiana, USA, I always do my share of helping the victims by writing a check thru the American Red Cross or the Catholic Charities.

In the case of Typhoon Durian, sending a check for the victims was not rewarding enough. My concience is telling me "the victims are your people, do something more". So I started the fund-raising within my confort zone - among the BENA members and proposing to the Board to authorize $500 from the Gen. Fund.

I hope this will be the foundation of BENA charity that Lito M is proposing in his message.

------
 

After the BENA frund-raising got started Marty posted an email inquiring about an organization or foundation through which the funds could be channeled. I volunteered the secretariat of the Albay High School Class of 1961 of which I am a member since this group was then doing relief work among the families of the class and other relatives and they have a bank account to which funds can be conveniently transfered. BENA approved the arrangement.

At the same time we also partnered with the MDRN (Mayon Disaster and Relief Network) run by the Redemptorists priests because of their long experience in this type of work. Fr. Oliver Castor, CSsR, runs the MDRN office in the church compound in Legaspi City. The MDRN has all the data on the various calamity areas and it was they who recommended the Malobago victims for our beneficiaries.

And so we had the Betan relief work. As far as we know this is only the second time that we did this kind of project, the first being the relief distribution at the Payatas a few days after the Payatas tragedy.
Marty

     Since there are only 3 of us Betans in Legaspi City, we requested the assistance of my classmates in Albay High School Class 1961 in the relief work, including the use of their bank account for the transfer of funds totalling almost P200,000. After the relief work, US400 and P5,000 were contributed by other brods.

     Photos show Betans with AHS61 classmates. Photo at left shows the caravan to the evacuation site about 45 minutes away.

Brod Boy Navea enjoys a good smoke on a rainy day at the evacuation center, and takes a video of the distribution of relief packs. Boy is now in charge of the Aquinas University-Legaspi  facilities after completing his term as dean of its College of Engineering.

Brod Dexter Atutubo at his office in the DPWH compound just across Aquinas University browsing through the Beta Epsilon directory. Dex is the OIC-Project Manager of the Regional Project Management Office. If there are DPWH projects in Bicol that are taking too long to complete or not being done properly, it is with our brod that we should file our complaints. Dex, don't say that we did not warn you. ;-)

     The evacues came from barangay Malobago which was devastated by the rampaging floodwaters with mud and boulders from the Mayon slope. They have been staying for more than one month at the TabonTabon Elementary School.

     They are to be relocated to a government site at Anislag (see map, left). Unfortunately, the government is taking a long time to prepare the site due to reported lack of funds. In the meantime, the pupils are on extended vacation until the evacuees vacate the classrooms and remove the tents.

     There are several evacuation centers all over Albay. We visited only 3.

Tents are cramped into the yard of the campus. 3-4 families live in a tent. Portalets are installed inside the compound,

The relief packs were transported in 3 jeeps and were promptly unloaded for the distribution.

This beneficiary, above, presents his control coupon and is given the packs.

One member of AHS61 gets the control coupon from the beneficiary which another member collects into a plastic bag for documentration later.

Betans with members of AHS61. Boy, Dex and Mon busied themselves with taking photos of the distribution.

 THANK YOUs AND FUNDERS

Immediately after the distribution, we thanked the AHS61 class through their chair, Armand Armena, for their valuable assistance. We also texted Fr. Oliver Castor, thanking him and his associates for facilitating our work and actually doing the nitty-gritty of relief work.

Immediately he texted back in our Bicol dialect:

Thank you din po. Dakulaon po na tabang an nagibo nindo. Ipaabot nindo tabi sa gabos nindong miembro an samuyang pagpasalamat. Dios an magbalos sa indo.

Translation in English:

Thank you too. What you have done is a big help. Please convey our thanks to all your members. May God bless you

Incidentally, I had earlier translated into Tagalog the last sentence as Bahala na ang Diyos sa inyo but a classmate pointed out that it was too literal a translation and turned out to be wishing the donors a punishment from God instead of a blessing. Well, you can say our Bicol dialect is rusty from non-use for years..

List of Betan donors

to the Relief fund

A. BENA DONORS (18)

Marty Martinez '53
Fel Ople '54
Dennis Quinto '58
Tom Choa '60
Mon Dionisio '60
Etao Salcedo '60
Alfonso Daco '62
Pol Yson '63
Joe Albano '64
Sarcee Monzon '68
Ed Villacorta '70
Bobby Canseco '75A
Elmer Rodriguez '75A
Arnel Platon '75B
Dom Aganon '75C
Angie Alvarez '75D
Gene Corpus '76
Greg Africa '79

 

B. BEAI DONORS (8)

Doni Dumlao '58
Boy de Leon '59
Tito Aliga '63
Cesar Yniguez '65
Sid Consunji '67
Lorie Febre '74A
Bix Saet '89B
Anonymous Betan

C. From General Funds

BEAI General Fund
BENA General Fund

Thank you brods for your kind assistance!

Hail Beta Epsilon!

(Marty, Sarsi -- please let me know if there are Betan donors not listed here)

    Barangay Malobago is where our beneficiaries came from. This high school freshman who served as my guide points to the barangay a kilometer down the slope from barangay Busay where we were standing. Legaspi City is several kilometers further down.

     Floodwaters with lahar and boulders swept through the place. There is nothing to go back there anymore,  with the homes destroyed or buried and the agricultural land transformed into a wasteland.

    Cagsawa Church, contrary to TV reports, was spared. Cagsawa is in barangay Busay.

This used to be a picturesque and pang-postcard 1-km road from the national highway to the Cagsawa Church, with agoo trees and houses and some stores on both sides. There are 3 makehift bridges  to cross when going to the church and the residents put up donation cans for the kindhearted to drop their loose change.

When they were still living in barangay Malobago, life was already hard, and everyday was a struggle to keep body and soul together. They had tiny parcels of land planted to rice and other crops which were not always enough to meet the basic requirements of the family. Now they don't have their homes and their land.

Some hope to become vendors in the public markets which are already teeming with vendors.  A few are thinking of migrating to Manila and other cities where they hope they could find jobs.

Some hope that the government would launch huge infra projects such as repair of damaged roads and public buildings, then they could hire themselves out, have a livelihood, and drive away their despair. Unfortunately, after more than one month in the evacuation center, such program has not even been rumored about. A classmate ventured the idea that perhaps the administration  will launch the public works program closer to the May 2007 elections to get votes for its candidates.

In the meantime, the administration is spending 10 billion pesos this year  to buy attack helicopters and modern armaments to stop the insurgency by 2010, an insurgency that is fueled by similar desperate  situations in hundreds of barangays all over the country, even in places not devastated by natural calamities.

Governor fears extreme poverty in Albay
by Evelyn @ 1:31 pm. Filed under News
Inquirer

LEGAZPI CITY- Extreme poverty is likely to follow the devastation wrought by Super typhoon "Reming," according to Gov. Fernando Gonzales who appealed for more help to alleviate the sufferings of his constituents. "It's a very grim prospect for us,"Gonzales told the Inquirer during a roundtable discussion with the Inquirer Southern Luzon on Monday.

He urged institutions and governments to help in the rehabilitation of the communities.Gonzales said government efforts were now geared toward rehabilitation, which, he added, required more funds. "We have at least 8,000 families who need to be relocated immediately to get them out of harm's way," he said.

The local governments of Ligao City, Guinobatan, Camalig, Daraga and Legazpi City have identified relocation sites but lack funds for their development, he said. He thanked the private sector and non-government organizations (NGOs), especially those helping in the repair of damaged schools in Batan, Cagraray and Rapu-rapu islands and in other parts of the province.

Another NGO helped rehabilitate a hospital in Tabaco City, he added. "But the biggest problem confronting us is how to rehabilitate the people's livelihood, especially the farmers whose coconut and rice farms were almost completely destroyed," he said.
 

Each family cooks its own meal. This one prepares dried fish and corned beef.

The corridor of the school building teems with evacuees the whole day. Some do their cooking here, some their laundry,.

Several families are packed in one classroom. Donors include candles in the relief packs because there is no electricity. They are also given mosquito nets and other bedding materials. Figure out why MDRN includes a pack of underwear in the relief pack.

Such is life in an evacuation center while waiting for a relocation site. The scene in each classroom and tent is heart-rending, nakakaiyak. But the victims go on with their lives, confident that things will get better at daybreak with the help of their fellowmen and their own efforts of will.

At the Albay Cathedral in Legaspi City we saw people patiently waiting for the start of the distribution of the relief goods by the local Social Action Center.

According to Fr. Oliver Castor, NGOs and private groups could only serve about 10% of the victims, the rest have to be attended to by the government and the LGUs.

In the neighboring town of Camalig, Albay we saw this relief distribution by the artist Gary Valenciano.  Senator Bong Revilla had earlier done his distribution and the mayor put up this thank you streamer

518          - Dead
648          - Missing
1,423      - Injured
 

68,617 - homes, totally destroyed

45,199 - homes, substantially destroyed

114,805 - no. of families affected

669,895 - no. of persons affected

6,194   - no. of families/evacues

30,318 - no. of persons/evacuees

P356 M - agricultural products destroyed

P21 M   - poultry/livestock destroyed

Supertyphoon Reming struck  Albay/Bicol on Nov. 30, 2006