By Nikko DizonPhilippine Daily Inquirer 1:14 am | Sunday, December 23rd, 2012
Army Pfc. Albert Fuyonan should have been celebrating his wedding
at a church in Tagum City in Davao del Norte on Saturday instead of
being confined in a hospital.
His company commander, Lt. Alex Daezeta, is also confined at the
Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center in Quezon City but is
raring to return to action in typhoon-battered New Bataan, where, he
said, “we fell… we will rise again.”
But it was Fuyonan’s bride to be, Rowena, that was on his mind on Saturday.
Rowena does not mind that her wedding had to be postponed and her gown kept in the meantime.
What’s important is her fiancé is alive and well, after being
swept away by the flash flood that devastated New Bataan town in
Compostela Valley.
“I knew in my heart that he was going to live,” Rowena said, standing beside Poypoy, Fuyonan’s nickname, at the hospital.
Although she was composed while she was waiting for word about
Fuyonan in the aftermath of Typhoon “Pablo,” Rowena just cried and cried
when they finally saw each other at a hospital in Davao.
Fuyonan is recuperating at AFP Medical Center, along with Deazeta and his platoon leader, Lt. Jose Enrico Nuas.
The three men are among the 22 soldiers from Charlie Company of
the Army’s 66th Infantry Battalion who survived after they were swept
away by floodwaters, along with the residents of Barangay Andap.
Four soldiers were killed and seven others remain missing, Deazeta told the Inquirer.
“We’ve accepted the fact that as soldiers, we can die anytime.
What’s important was their bodies were recovered for the sake of their
families,” Deazeta said.
Deazeta, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 2007, saw combat in previous assignments.
But he said Typhoon Pablo brought him face to face with the most
formidable enemy he ever encountered. Against the fury of nature,
Deazeta didn’t stand a chance.
Winning hearts and minds
Two platoons of Charlie Company were assigned to Barangay Andap
in New Bataan, one each stationed on opposite sides of the mountain.
Deazeta, the company commander, said he and his men had been in
Barangay Andap as part of the military’s Internal Peace and Security
Plan Bayanihan since July.
In the past five months, the soldiers developed a livelihood program for the residents, particularly the young people.
Deazeta said he and his men did feasibility studies before
introducing programs so that these would be sustainable and the
residents could really earn from them and improve their lives long after
the military had left the town.
By December, the unit had already reserved
2,000 fingerlings of catfish and tilapia. “We were just waiting for the
materials to be used to build the fish pens in the school,” Deazeta
said.
Charlie Company had also developed a
cooperative project for the military’s auxiliary soldiers, also known as
Cafgus, and their families. Deazeta said they were going to set up a
sari-sari store that would sell goods at lower prices.
Everything was looking bright for the
community and the soldiers. Deazeta said nothing could make the soldiers
happier than the residents’ smiles and greetings of “Hello.”
Typhoon alert
On Dec. 3, Deazeta said the company was alerted for possible rescue operations as Pablo barreled toward the region.
On the southeastern portion of the
mountain, where Deazeta and one platoon were stationed, residents went
down to seek shelter in the center of the village, regarded as the
safest place in the area.
“Signal No. 2 was announced on television
that night. But there was very little rain and the people were thinking,
‘This is it?’” Deazeta recalled.
Morning came, and so did heavy rains. “At
around 7 a.m., we heard a grinding sound from the top of the mountain.
It was faint at first but then it began to get louder. We decided to
evacuate the people,” Deazeta said.
By then, all communication signals were
down as the first typhoon to hit the area approached with peak winds of
up to 200 kilometers per hour. The soldier could not use even their cell
phones.
Deazeta had around 40 men with him and more
than a hundred residents who had sought shelter in the multipurpose
hall, the Catholic and Baptist churches, the senior citizens’ hall,
among other shelters.
The soldiers packed people into the KM 450 truck. Lieutenant Nuas and another soldier hung at the back to assist the evacuees.
Waves kept on coming
Deazeta instructed Nuas to ask for more
trucks from the battalion headquarters to evacuate the people in
Barangay Andap. It was Nuas’ first assignment on the field after
graduating from the military academy earlier this year.
“But suddenly, we saw [floodwater] about
two feet high coming. We knew that the truck, with its weight and the
people in it, would hold in the water,” Deazeta said.
But since Nuas and the other soldier were
only hanging on the vehicle, they had to jump and run back to the
multipurpose hall where Deazeta was.
To their surprise, it was not just
floodwater. The water carried mud, logs and boulders along with it. The
flood swept the truck, which flipped to its side. Then the water
subsided, allowing the soldiers to run to it and pull out the people to
safety.
Just as everybody had reached the
multipurpose hall, another rush of floodwater came. “It was a wave,”
Deazeta said. Everybody watched the truck bob up and down and finally
disappear.
Then the waves came one after another,
Deazeta said. He clambered up to the roof of the hall to check where
they could all move because he knew the hall wouldn’t stand in the
powerful onrush of floodwater.
Like being in a blender
But floodwater enveloped the whole place,
trapping everybody. They watched as floodwater swept the barangay hall
away. Deazeta knew they were all trapped.
Nuas and Fuyonan were also looking for
higher ground when another wave swept toward the multipurpose hall, Nuas
turned to the soldiers and the people and screamed, “Talon (Jump)!”
He saw four soldiers jump with him. No resident followed. Just as they jumped, the water swallowed Nuas and Fuyonan.
On the roof, Deazeta felt the hall shake and crash. And he, too, was swept away.
Also washed away were Pfc. Ramil Pedrero, 27, his wife Jaysyl and their year-old daughter, Jasmine.
Pedrero and his wife would get separated in the flood but find each other later. Jasmine’s body has not been recovered.
“It felt like being inside a blender. You’re twisting and turning, and there’s mud, rocks and logs hitting you,” Nuas said.
Deazeta felt it would never end, being
dragged by the current. He also felt being pinned between two logs. “I
was getting very tired. I just surrendered everything to the higher
being,” Deazeta said.
Bright light, helping hand
At that moment, he closed his eyes. And
then there was a bright light and what he figured was a left hand
reaching out to him. He reached back and held on to the hand. When he
opened his eyes, he was hanging on to the roots of an uprooted tree.
Mustering all his strength, he pulled himself out of the mud.
When he looked up, there was a church in
front of him. “I don’t go to church regularly. But I pray in my own way.
I call the higher being, ‘best friend,’” Deazeta said.
He was naked because the strong current
ripped his uniform apart and was able to reach an empty house where he
found clothes. He later heard people coming and he asked for help.
Nuas called out to Jehovah for help.
Fuyonan saw a bright light as he was about to give up but a fallen
coconut tree came with the torrent and he clung to it.
When the flood subsided, Nuas stood up and
heard Fuyonan call out to him. But then another wave came. Determined to
live, Nuas jumped to higher ground and anchored himself on a tree with
his leg.
The two men were soon reunited with the
other soldiers who were able to make it to higher ground, along with the
other residents, the group that took refuge in the church.
It was then that they noticed a gaping wound on Fuyonan’s side. They treated the wound with guava leaves until help arrived.
Deazeta’s fiancée, Chantelle, said that he
was all bruised and swollen when she saw him at the hospital. His eyes,
ears and nose were all covered with mud.
We shall return
His injured men were with him, and when he
tried to walk days later, they assisted him even if they, too, had their
own injuries to worry about. Such brotherhood brought tears to
Chantelle’s eyes.
“This could be our most boring Christmas
because we will be spending it in the hospital but it is the most
blessed Christmas,” Chantelle said, wiping away her tears.
Deazeta said the rest of the injured men of
Charlie Company were recuperating in Davao. He said the Pedrero couple
were the most traumatized because of the loss of their daughter.
But the rest are raring to go back to Barangay Andap to continue the work they have begun.
“We want to go back despite what happened
to us. We want to turn the place into ‘Renewed’ Bataan. It was where we
fell. It is where we will rise again,” Deazeta said.
