Iliganon family remembers tragedy 7 years after 'Sendong'

ILIGAN CITY - Seven years after surviving the tragedy that killed his three children, Andres Lasquite is now serving as a lay minister in San Roque Parish in Barangay Hinaplanon here, one of the 33 villages that were badly hit by tropical storm "Sendong" (Washi) on December 17, 2011.

His wife, Myrna Ramos, is also doing missionary work as a Born-Again-Christian in Iligan City.

During the commemoration organized by the city government on Monday (Dec. 17) to remember the dead and the missing residents, Lasquite shared how he, his wife, and three children survived the tragedy, but lost three others.

Survivor's story

It was 6 p.m. that day when waters of the nearby Mandulog River started to rise and, in a few hours, the whole family was already on the rooftop of their house.

"Pero padayun nagsaka ang tubig, halos molapas na sa among atop, maong namalhin mi sa atop sa silingan (But the water continued to rise almost at the level of our rooftop, so we decided to transfer to our neighbor's rooftop)," Andres recalled.


They were not alone.  All their neighbors were already perched on rooftops to secure themselves from the rampaging waters.

Then the family heard a roar and saw floodwater breaching the banks of the nearby river, carrying huge logs and boulders in its path.

It all happened in mere seconds, they said, with the logs and boulders barreling through the neighborhood's houses.

The family clung to everything they can hold on to---tree branches, poles, and every standing object that was strong enough to withstand the strong water current.

"The last thing I heard, one of my children shouted, 'Ma, Pa, tabangi ko, dili pa ko gusto mamatay!' (Mother, Father, please help me, I don't want to die yet)," Andres recalled.

Then he witnessed the whole family getting carried away by the current.

Retrieval

The following morning, when the water subsided, Andres started looking for his family.

He first saw his youngest--alive!

"Dagko kaayo ang samad sa lawas, wala nay sinina, na-shock (He had wounds all over his body, naked, shocked).  Then I found my wife, she also had no clothes on while being rescued by the Army and the plice.  I also had no clothes on.  Even my underwear was ripped offf from my body," he said.

Then his nightmare came: he saw the rescuers retrieved a body whose clothing was familiar to him.  It was one of his three missing children.

The bodies of his two other children have not been recovered.

Mission in life

"I still have my three other children alive with us.  We recovered the dead body of one of three kids.  We are still longing to find at least the remains of the two children," Andres said.

Typhoon Sendong, he said, has made him realize that he still has a mission in life.

"God allowed me to witness what happened to my children and it was very hard to move on.  I thought I cannot recover, but when my wife almost gave up, that was the time when I realized that I must be strong.  I still have my other three children," he said.

His new-found vocation as a lay minister, he said, has helped him to heal faster.




And his wife became a member of a Born-Again Christian church.

"We may have separate religious affiliations, but I am glad that she is recovering.  I'm not forcing her to go back to the Catholic church because the faith that she is serving now has helped her a lot to move on," Andres said. [Divina Suson, PNA]