Tag Archives: Typhoon Haiyan

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Kuya Joseph, Brgy. Burayan, San Jose, Tacloban City

Kuya Joseph. From Brgy. Burayan San Jose. Interviewed in early December 2013, less than a month after Typhoon Yolanda. He drove us around when we volunteered with Kusog Tacloban. His experience in his own words, just re-organized as this happened in various conversations. Will translate at some point, though will gladly let others do it. Because I still think there is no writing people’s stories that will do justice to their voices. Making it pretty is not just an injustice, it also effectively silences. (more…)

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Balangiga, Eastern Samar

there is a general sadness to this space, so historically vibrant, and such a measure of how we do not care about this history. the bells are missing from the church’s bell tower, and the church itself is closed and under renovation. in May its doors were open, masses were being celebrated, a choir practiced in between. in the plaza in front of the Church there is a monument by Napoleon Abueva showing how 500 Filipino revolutionaries launched a surprise ambush on Company C of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment on September 28 1901.  (more…)

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Guiuan, Eastern Samar

when I was doing reliefph.com at the height of Yolanda / Haiyan last year, one indication I had that things were really bad was the number of phone calls and pleas for help that we received through the site. this was when there was a news blackout about the aftermath of the storm, and very little was getting through to Manila. relatives had started getting in touch with the site to tell us about the last time they had contact with family from Eastern Samar and Leyte, and what they found out before communication lines died. for Guiuan in particular, the news was grim, the first images were of communities by its shoreline had been reduced to ground zero, how Haiyan’s winds and the storm surge had practically taken whole barangays with it.

a year since, this is what I saw of Guiuan in October. it does not capture the anger that is here, and the pain. ruins do not say much. (more…)

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about those bunkhouses #typhoonHaiyan #reliefPH

in early December, when i went with my friend Rambie to set-up her soup kitchen for kids in Tacloban, to feed as well in neighbouring towns, we saw what the locals called “housing” along the stretch of the highway. then, even with only skeletal frames, it already looked pretty tight, and one could imagine how congested it was to become. (more…)

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missing the point

it is a waste of time, but also utterly insensitive and absolutely unnecessary for anyone at all in government to be talking at this point about looting on the one hand, and proposing a level-up on the punishment against looters on the other, obviously contextualized as it is in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

this is what Muntinlupa City Representative Rodolfo Biazon is doing by filing House Bill 3367. he is also missing the point. (more…)