Little Kibungan takes comfort in faith

Little Kibungan takes comfort in faith
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:27:00 10/20/2009
Filed Under: Belief (Faith), Religions

MARSING MALANES LOST a daughter, a son-in-law and four grandchildren, who tried to run to safe ground but instead met an avalanche of raging mud that fateful night of Oct. 8 when Tropical Depression “Pepeng” dumped heavy rain on the province.

Despite the tragedy, Malanes’ faith in God stays stronger than the wrath of Pepeng, whose nonstop downpour triggered a mudslide that swept away houses along a creek in Barangay Puguis’ Little Kibungan in Benguet’s capital town of La Trinidad.

A three-story concrete house was also brought down some 200 meters into the La Trinidad Valley.

“How could my children and grandchildren survive such a powerful mudslide?” asks Malanes, 58.

Although still mourning, she takes comfort “in the Lord’s promise that my children and grandchildren are now in His bosom and are now helping keep watch over us who survived this tragedy.”

“This promise is what continues to lighten our load and burden,” says Malanes, a member of the Church of Nazarene in Puguis. “Now, my children and grandchildren are at peace with the Lord. They are actually now in a better position than we are, who have to experience pain and suffering in this world.”

Malanes lost her daughter Minda, 38, Minda’s husband, Santiago Valdez Jr., 39; and their four children—Ruthi Fe, 14; Von Timothy, 10; James Francis, 2; and Josh Mark, 1.

They were among the 76 people who were killed by the landslide in Little Kibungan.


Swallowed by mud

The Valdez home remains intact, but accounts from neighbors and from Ruthi Fe’s text message before they were swallowed by mud indicated that they met their fate while on flight.

At past 10 p.m. on Oct. 8, Ruthi Fe was able to tell her aunt, Mercedes Cadley, in a text message that her father roused them from sleep so they would evacuate to their grandmother’s house on upper ground in Little Kibungan.

Neighbors say the Valdezes might have thought that the mudslide was coming from above their house instead of the other way because the village was pitch-dark as a result of a power outage, thick clouds and heavy rains.

The family would have survived the avalanche had they not gone down a road along the creek.

Mission and purpose

Despite all, Malanes thinks that “with God, everything must have a purpose.”
Minda and her family’s death “all the more strengthened our faith in God and helped us look deeply into what is more important in life,” says Malanes.

This faith is shared by the woman’s eldest son, Fernando, 40, and his wife, Edwina, 41, who also had a close brush with death that night. “God must have a mission and purpose for us that we have yet to fulfill,” says Fernando.

On Oct. 7, Edwina said she had an “uneasy, bad feeling” so she urged her husband that they leave an extension room near their kitchen in the basement, and be with their three children on the second floor.

That premonition saved them; the mudslide wiped out their room. Amid the heavy downpour, the rescuers arrived and guided them to the house of Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan, southeast of Little Kibungan.

Moving on

Malanes, her son Fernando and family, two unmarried children and two grandchildren left to her care are now occupying a space in the house of a friend in the valley.

The widowed grandmother looks forward to meeting with local officials this week for a possible relocation site where they can rebuild their houses and lives. She seeks to find a place where her grandchildren need not fear the rains and storms.

One of her grandchildren, Clever, 14, the youngest of Fernando and Edwina, remains traumatized, she says. He wouldn’t even want to go back to Little Kibungan and retrieve his things.

“Just get my school ID and school uniform. You don’t have to get my other clothes because I have already received some clothes from relief supplies,” Clever told his grandmother and mother.

Fernando continues to earn for his family’s upkeep as a construction worker.

While looking for a job, Edwina, a preschool teacher, earns extra as a hired hand in La Trinidad’s strawberry and vegetable farms.

If they strive to move on, credit that to “our faith,” says Malanes.

“Laton, ilab-lab-ak tako (It’s OK. We shall overcome),” she says.

Determination

That same faith and determination strengthen the Kankanaey people of Kibungan town, 60 kilometers north of La Trinidad, where Malanes and family hail from.

Kibungan has been isolated since Oct. 9 because of road cuts and landslides that block major roads.

But the hardy Kankanaey, led by Mayor Benito Siadto, renewed their cooperative self-help tradition and volunteerism and have been clearing the roads with shovels and picks.

But so they won’t starve, they have appealed for immediate food aid and heavy equipment to repair eroded and washed-out roads, including a key bridge in the village of Balacbac in Kapangan town.