Family struggles to survive in Padang lahar site

09 April 2007
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon

LEGAZPI CITY—FOR BROTHERS JR, 3, AND Rod, 2, it’s just playing tag under the heat of the summer sun. But for their father Rudy Bermundo, 37, it’s chasing the wind for survival and a decent living after Supertyphoon “Reming” destroyed their house and livelihood.

Bermundo brings his two boys with him when he gathers gravel at the lahar site at Barangay Padang in this city every day.

His wife and youngest son are left at the upland barangay of Taysan where the “MMDA Village” has been built by the government to serve as temporary shelter for typhoon survivors.

While Bermundo sieves gravel from a small river channel with a metal net he made, his two children play—running and throwing stones—on the barren grounds of Padang. Heaps of sand and scattered rocks are all that can be seen with Mount Mayon in the background.

Bermundo was forced to build a shanty at the lahar site so he and his two sons need not travel back and forth to the relocation site every day. Transportation costs eat a substantial amount from his earnings.

He earns P80 per cubic meter of gravel collected, he said.

Late that afternoon, he estimated having already about three cubic meters to be fetched by the truck of a construction company any time, but he did not stop working.

He does this despite an ailment caused by an accident while working for a construction company.

A metal equipment fell on him, injuring his head and breaking his collar bone. He was brought to the hospital and confined for about two months. He was jobless for a year.

“I could still feel the pain. And now I can only do limited activities. But I have to work so we could have something to eat,” Bermundo said in Bicol as he showed the Inquirer his deformed left shoulder.

Planting

On hours when he doesn’t collect gravel, Bermundo plants root crops and vegetables in an area in Padang not affected by the lahar.

He would bring the harvest to Taysan for his wife to sell.

“Root crops easily sell at the relocation site. One time, I brought a can of ‘linsa’ (gabi root crop) and we were able to sell it for P200. I also plant hot pepper and sweet potatoes,” he said.

Bermundo said he had brought his two sons with him because they always got sick at the relocation site.

“I don’t actually want my family to live there, not unless the government gives us a permanent house to stay. But we have no choice,” he said.

The area where Bermundo collects gravel is almost exactly the same spot where their concrete house once stood.

He pointed to where his relatives’ house used to be. The tragedy was still fresh in his mind.

Some of his siblings and other family members died.

Just like many other typhoon survivors, Bermundo said he did not benefit from the food-for-work programs of the government and nongovernment institutions. He decided to move on his own without relying on the promises.

At the MMDA village and the refugee camp at Tagas, some families have put up stores in their tents.

Some were said to have started their business by selling part of the relief goods they had received and having whatever money they had recovered from rubble as capital.

At Barangay Busay in Daraga, some displaced children sell photos of Mayon to tourists visiting the Cagsawa ruins.

These children, who know much about the history of the volcano’s 1814 eruption, also act as tour guides after class hours in the afternoon.

Food for work

The World Food Program (WFP) of the United Nations is one of the nongovernment organizations working to provide food support and livelihood to the refugees.

Syed Arefeen, head of the WFP’s Legazpi sub-office, said the agency planned to provide 5,788 metric tons of food to 500,000 people.

“But now, we only have 22 percent of the required funding of $4 million. We badly need more donations so we can continuously extend help not just to the relocation sites but also to the communities,” he said.

The WFP organizes food-for-work programs to typhoon survivors by giving them work for a week in exchange for a month-long supply of food.

“We make them help in the rehabilitation of damaged day care centers and repair other facilities in the community. There’s a lot of work to be done in the communities,” Arafeen said.

But for Bermundo, selling gravel and root crops on his own is the immediate thing he can do to at least give his family members their daily needs. He is still seeking to secure his family’s future with certainty.

And his children, having enough time to play and be just kids speak volumes of how responsible their father is in these dire times.