austraLasia
1455
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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