Tulabut: Pinatubo — 20 Years After
By Noel G. Tulabut
My Palm Notes
June 16, 2011
I REMEMBER those dark days. Really dark days.
My memory of Pinatubo’s eruption is still vivid. My late mother called me to come out of the kitchen and see the mushroom cloud at the west end of our house.
Yes, there was a huge ash cloud over the skies over what we called then as “kampu” (Clark Air Base). On a straight line, our house is only less than a kilometer away from the perimeter fence that separates Clark from villages like ours.
I went out to the street to get a better view. And good view I got of people watching the plume go up thousands of meters into the sky. And good view I got too of people scampering, running, with some of them hurriedly boarding a jeep, a tricycle, anything. I will not forget neighbors taking with them dogs, cats, and even pigs.
The running was caused by panic. The panic was caused by uncertainties.
I remember hearing volcano experts then that they will not be sure if Pinatubo will not emit deadly fumes that would contain sulfur. Sulfur, as we all know, is lethal. That probably caused the panic and running. People thought that the ash cloud and smoke from Pinatubo would bring a plague deadlier than acid rain. Who would not be afraid then?
That night — very late at that — we left Mabalacat for Quezon City as we did not know if situations would turn worse. We did not want our niece Marice — then three months old — to be breathing air filled with Pinatubo’s what-have-you particles. Even then, Marice grew up with occasional asthma attacks.
We returned a few days after and nary an idea we have that the days to follow the June 12 eruption would even be darker.
Aggravating Pinatubo’s continuing eruptions was a tropical storm that hit the country June 14 onwards. With the skies already darkened by ash cover, the sun was almost blotted out by storm clouds in the atmosphere.
Noontime looked like past sunset then. We thought it was the world’s end.
I remember dozing off at 10 in the morning on June 15 as I lacked sleep in previous days. I remember waking up, startled that I thought I slept until 6 in the evening as it looked like night time. Alas, it was only noontime.
The days, weeks and months that followed were worst.
Just as when we thought that danger was over when ash clouds dissipated into earth’s atmosphere, we were wrong. We have not seen anything yet. Pyroclastic flows were our biggest nightmare.
We would be fearful whenever it rained due to lahar threats. We would hear rumbling sounds of rocks and other volcanic debris as the nearby river system was only about two kilometers away from our house. They sounded like cavalry of horses galloping and running into the wild. Barangays Dolores and Tabun were entombed. Our village was next in the lahar path.
While our house was spared from the lahar onslaught, we were not spared from emotional, financial and physical tolls. We have had to evacuate to somewhere safe from being buried by volcanic debris. My first child Asher was born and reared while renting a house, where eight other siblings and our parents squeezed in.
That is how we have had to endure not only the next few months but years ahead.
We crossed river channels on foot, negotiating wooden planks and makeshift stairs on embankments. We sweated it out in dusty roads where it was painful to the eyes and nose. Ashfalls were natural occurrences, leaving one’s top either gray if not white.
The world then was dreary, with only shades of grays, whites, blacks on tree tops, on roofs, buildings, street pavements, almost everywhere.
We have experienced lining up too for relief goods, plastic mats and medicines. Sardines and noodles were delightful staples then. We raced with neighbors for medicines for pain, colds, and cough especially.
Those were the days. Dark days.
Twenty years after, we have survived.
Not only because we have remained steadfast, but because of the grace of God.
We did not only survive, we recovered, we grew back.
While some of Pinatubo’s fury could still be felt and seen in dislocations, occasional floods, entirely new topography, yet, nothing could serve as a sense of relief, of reward than to realize that we have indeed recovered.
Pinatubo may be a thing of the past now, yet, it helped shape the present, and it made us face our future.
*****
HOLIDAY OR NOT? Confused indeed are many people in the province whether today, June 15, is a non-working holiday.
House Bill 3948 which would make June 15 of each year as non-working holiday remains unapproved. No thanks to media hype on the supposed “memorialization” of Pinatubo.
Governor Lilia Pineda did not issue any order for the declaration of holiday. Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales has rescinded an earlier memo he issued for the supposed holiday. In Angeles City, the holiday was reported to have been covered by a City Ordinance according to info officer Deo Sambilay. All these bits of information are just being obtained one or two days before the June 15 celebration.
Sadly, the local banks declared a non-banking day as they were carried by the hype. I am pretty sure that a lot of entities especially schools have also declared the same.
With all these brouhaha and confusion, I think it would have been better if Malacanang has taken the lead in the celebration of Pinatubo’s 20th anniversary. Oh, I almost forgot Pampanga’s daughter Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is already a Congresswoman and is no longer in the Palace.
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/opinion/2011/06/14/tulabut-pinatubo-20-years-after-161120
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Mimosa Drive past Holiday Inn, Mimosa Leisure Estate,
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