TRENTO, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews/22 December)—A survivor of Typhoon Pablo here is wishing upon show business “megastar” Sharon Cuneta to help him rebuild their family’s shattered lives.
“I hope Sharon Cuneta will help us stand again. We are back to zero,” Aurelio Pescadio appealed Friday.
The 58-year old father of seven children was sorting debris at his shop along the national highway in Barangay Langkilaan here when MindaNews chanced on him.
His shop, which sells “bukag” (sturdy big baskets fashioned from bamboo or rattan), was totally wiped out by Pablo’s fury last December 4. His car wash beside the shop was also destroyed.
Two weeks after Pablo’s devastation, Pescadio appeared to be still in a state of disbelief.
“I lost everything that I have labored for so long in a just snap, like the blink of an eye,” he said in Visayan dialect.
Pescadio said his eight-hectare farm was also destroyed by Pablo’s wrath.
Aside from 3,000 rubber trees, his farm is also planted with coconut, banana and falcata trees, he added.
“They were all gone, destroyed by the very strong winds,” Pescadio lamented.
But exuding an essence of resilience, he believes that he and his family would rise again and regain the dignity the typhoon swiftly took away from them.
“In God’s grace and with the help of others, hopefully like Sharon Cuneta, we can rebuild our lives sooner,” Pescadio said.
This town is one of the most devastated areas in Agusan del Sur that the typhoon torn into shambles.
Houses along the town’s national highway either crumbled down or were flown away. Uprooted coconut trees, toppled electric poles, and other debris were strewn beside the roads. Deeper from the highway, trees stood without their branches.
Based on the December 6 Pablo aftermath report of the Agusan del Sur provincial government, 2,561 families or 13,639 individuals were affected by the typhoon in eight barangays of Trento.
There were 1,034 totally damaged houses in this town and 2,036 partially damaged, or a total of 3,070 houses, it added.
Typhoon Pablo, the report showed, also destroyed P132 million worth of crops and livestock in this town.
Two weeks after Pablo struck his village, Pescadio said that help still has to come to him and his family.
As he narrated what happened, small children nearby were reaching their palms out to passing motorists, hoping they’ll drop in food or whatever that would help their families tide this difficult time of their lives.
The children, one of them Pescadio’s son, were not minding the drizzle at all. (Bong S. Sarmiento/MindaNews)