TACLOBAN CITY—At a junction from the airport entering the city proper, a candlelight memorial has been set up, which will run until November 8, in memory of the thousands of city residents who died during Supertyphoon Yolanda four years ago.
But, unlike the previous candlelight memorial that focused on the dead and the missing victims of Yolanda, this year’s activity focuses on the growing global problem of climate change and its effects on small communities like this city.
“While we are still mourning, we are done with the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the city. But we cannot just keep on mourning. We have to bring the discourse to a higher level and identify what caused this problem to happen,” said filmmaker and broadcast journalist Jeff Manibay, who heads the group Leyte First.
The candlelight memorial, organized by Leyte First with the support of environmentalist Greenpeace and the office of Rep. Yedda Marie K. Romualdez of the First District of Leyte, opened on November 4 and will end on November 8, the fourth anniversary of Yolanda.
“Let us not focus on what we lost, but on what was left, and we move on,” said Melchor Cañete, barangay captain of Barangay 76 in Tacloban’s Fatima Village, a coastal community where hundreds of people died during the typhoon.
Hundreds of wooden crosses were put up on the junction of the road where candles were also offered for those who died during the onslaught of Yolanda. Green ribbons were also put on the crosses to signify the protest against the industrial excesses of developed countries that contribute to climate change.
“The Yolanda memorial this year is a collective protest against the massive industrial excesses and the massive destruction they make on hapless communities like us,” said Manibay, whose both parents remain missing up to this day.
“The problem with global warming is that its origins are far away from us. What causes global warming is thousands of miles away,” Manibay said. “What’s bad with it is that it hit us most, not them.”
“I want to make this memorial as our platform, our voice to tell the industrialized nations to go slow because there are communities like us here in Tacloban and in many Third World countries that are getting the brunt of these excesses,” he said.
Image credits: Elmer Recuerdo
1 comment
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Tacloban has not finished reconstructing and rehabilitating. I live in Southern Leyte and have seen the destruction first hand and the reconstruction efforts are ongoing. Also there have been super typhoons in the Philippines for thousands of years. Since even before man discovered the internal combustion engine the world has experienced typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes and cyclones. While global warming is a very real thing it is not being effected by man as much as global warming proponents are making us believe. Throughout the Earth’s history we have gone through periods of warming and cooling. This is natural. It is caused by the distance the Earth from the Sun. Yes green house gasses are helping to speed up the process during our current warming cycle, but not at an amount that will cause the devastation global warming proponents claim.
Moving forward and improving the city of Tacloban is laudable, but without addressing the reason the reconstruction is taking so long the city will not be able to move forward. The Yolanda funds that were donated towards the disaster relief efforts are missing. The 98 Billion Pesos that the people of the world donated to help were not used to help. Many Filipino citizens think they know where that money is. They believe that former DILG head Mar Roxas stole the funds and used them to further his political ambitions. Until there is an accounting for this criminal act against he people of Tacloban and the other Filipinos effected by Super Typhoon Yolanda these people will never be able to move forward.