Guiuan rises with a lot of help from mining firm

By Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files

Photos by Mario Ignacio IV

Yolanda survivors Lito G. Abucejo, 47, a carpenter and his wife, Rebecca, 44, marked the 100th day after the super typhoon slammed into Manicani Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, in a newly-built house.

The Abucejos have folded their United Nations-donated tent, which was their shelter the past three months, and are now living in a new structure built where their old house once stood.

The Abucejo’s new house is one of the more than 400 being built by Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC), which owns a non-operating nickel mine in Manicani.

Coco lumber felled by Yolanda are being used for the 30-square meter houses, being built on the property of the survivors. They are expected to last four to five years.

NAC and the local government will be working on a long-term rehabilitation and development of the island, where Yolanda made its first landfall last Nov. 8.

Aside from the houses in Manicani Island, NAC will also be underwriting the construction of 10 barangay halls in Guiuan and the reconstruction of the Guiuan Cathedral. The rehabilitation project is estimated to cost about P100 million.

At the launching of the Guiuan rehabilitation program recently, NAC President Gerry Brimo and NAC Senior Vice President for Marketing Undersecretary Dennis Zamora assured the residents of Manicani that their participation has “nothing to do with mining.”

“This is not about mining. This is about helping each other,” Zamora said.

Brimo told Manicani residents, “We are here to help.We need your trust.”

Undersecretary Vic Batac, who represented PARR Secretary Panfilo “Ping” Lacson during the launch of the Guiuan reconstruction, explained that it is the private sector, like NAC, that is leading in the rehabilitation of Yolanda-damaged areas.

That is good, he said because although the government is allotting money for the rehabilitation, government bureaucracy does not move as fast as the private sector.

Guiuan Mayor Christopher “Sheen” Gonzales said Manicani is close to his heart because that is his mother ‘s place. He said when Yolanda slammed into Guiuan early morning of Nov. 8, he thought it was the end of the world. For three to four hours, he recalled, they had to endure the the deafening fury of Yolanda. “Akala naming mamatay na kami, (We thought we were going to die.)”

After the storm, the whole of Guiuan was flattened. Roofs were blown away, buildings were destroyed. Less than 100 of the almost 50,000 population perished. In Manicani, one died.

The low casualty rate was due to the pre-typhoon preparations of the local government.

Gonzales said the Nickel Asia’s rehabilitation project for Guiuan shows that “They care for us.”
“Let’s cooperate,” he enjoined the residents.

Manicani residents are thankful that NAC is taking care of constructing their new houses. What they need now are means of livelihood. Fisherman Edgardo Padero, who survived Yolanda by taking refuge under the table, said his boat and “baklad” (fishing net) were destroyed.

Lecenia Cometa, a councilwoman in Barangay Hamorawon, recalled that while Yolanda was smashing into their island and their house, all 16 of them hid under a table that sits 10. Nimfa Cabusora, Barangay Hamorawod treasurer, said they survived the fury of Yolanda by hiding inside the cabinet.

Like Padero, their fishing nets were washed out by the typhoon together with their Petromax.

They are hoping more kind-hearted companies would help them with their fishing equipment.

(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”)