Bishop's hopes for buried flock rely on prayer
Sourced from local reports
MAASIN: 19th February 2006: Bishop Cantillas, youngish
Salesian bishop of Maasin, a suffragan diocese of Cebu, was described
by Rome's L'Avvenire Sunday edition as 'in a state of shock'
over the tragedy which has befallen the tiny village of Guinsaugon.
Media reports talk of a 'coastal village' but this is not quite
accurate. St. Bernard, the chief centre, is indeed coastal, but
Guinsaugon is inland from there, the end of the existing road in fact,
which led to the foot of a mountain - the mountain which collapsed on
Friday and, it would seem, has wiped out 90% or more of the inhabitants
along with a number of visitors, mostly women, who had gathered there
that day to celebrate. Bishop Cantillas had only just returned from
Hong Kong, he explains, but immediately saw that Fr. Gohetia, the
diocesan crisis coordinator, was on the scene and that the entire
resources of the diocese were put at the disposal of the rescue effort,
opening up parish and school buildings and religious communities to
take in survivors and relocated persons.
Unfortunately, survivors are few. Again, world media speak in
broad figures of 1,500, 1,800, 2000 - it is clear that nobody quite
knows how many people were there that day. Bishop Cantillas says he
knows there are normally 300 families in the village. The actual
recovery figures (there are two groups offering them and they differ
just slightly) are 409-411 survivors, 50-53 confirmed dead and between
891 and 962 missing. The survivors, however, are people who survived
in the first instance. There are stories already emerging of their
lucky escape. 28 year old farmer Christopher Lipato, for example, who
was grazing caribao at around 10.am. He ran and kept ahead of the mud
and rocks engulfing the village - but lost all and everyone. It seems
that to date the ones who were what the rescue teams call 'surface
survivors' can be counted on one hand.
The area has long been known to be geologically unstable. The
first major disaster was reported in 1749 and literally tens of
thousands of people in the immediate area have died since then through
landslides, volcanic activity and floods. Natural forest cover has
been largely replaced by coconut palms which do not take deep root.
The Bishop himself indicated that landslides in the area are almost a
daily occurrence. He recognises that humanly speaking, after the
tragic event on Friday, there is little hope of recovery, but hopes at
another level that there are still people to be found alive, especially
in the buried school premises. He believes in the power of prayer in
this situation, at least to help make sense of what has occurred. Back
in Manila, in the seat of government, where reports of geological
surveys had already identified the possibilities for this disaster, the
questions are already too late.
There are no Salesians, other than the bishop himself, in the
Maasin diocese.
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