Expat Igorot karateka reaches out to Capiz typhoon victims
>> Tuesday, December 24, 2013
By Ramon Dacawi
Samaritans in Southern Germany
were able to reach out to typhoon victims in two towns of Capiz, thanks to the
team work of a small foundation, a parish priest and a crew of linemen from
Baguio-Benguet dispatched a month earlier to help restore electric power in the
storm-devastated Visayan province.
Expatriate
Igorot karate teacher Julian Chees personally delivered over P700,000 in rice
and cash to villagers in Dumalag and Tapaz towns in a joint effort with
linemen of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) and Fr. Niel Olano,
parish priest of the St. Martin of Tours Church in Dumalag.
A
month of repairing the typhoon-damaged lines of the Capiz Electric Cooperative
(CAPELCO) gave the Beneco linemen led by engineers Rocky Pallogan, Zac Torres
and Carlo Bentayen enough background information needed for the relief
operation.
They
firmed up the mission with Fr. Olano who had provided shelter for the
Beneco crew and who had turned his parish into a base for such efforts in the
wake of the typhoon devastation.
“You
are the third group to reach out to the victims here through our parish,” he
told Chees, a former world shotokan karate champion from Bontoc, Mt.
Province who founded and heads Shoshin Kinderhilfe, a humanitarian arm he
and his martial arts in Germany founded in 2004 for the needy and
sick here in his native Cordillera region.
The
Beneco crew used their boom truck to deliver 250 sacks of rice Shoshin
paid a miller in Cogon, Panitan town, some 40 kilometers away. Youth
volunteers waiting in Dumalag repacked 200 of the sacks which Beneco
dispatched the following morning to over 300 recipients in barangay Concepcion,
a community in the foothills of the town.
Tamang-tama
ang misyon n’yo dahil ngayon ang pyesta ng barangay (Your mission is timely as
today is the fiesta of this barangay),” Fr. Olano said before the team climbed
up the Imaculada Concepcion chapel which stood on a hilltop.
The
villagers heard mass, each now and then murmuring personal intentions and
gratitude for having survived the howler that turned the barangay covered court
below into a mass of twisted steel.
Limwel Limjuco, area manager of Capelco, said there were about 60 typhoon fatalities in the whole of Capiz province (composed of Roxas City and 16 towns), comparatively low in relation to other areas as evacuation was forcefully done.
Along the highway from the Roxas Airport (which departure area roof was blown off) to Dumalag, were still-to-be-cleared signs of the nightmare: crumpled huts of the poor, mangled steel trusses stripped of roof sheets, thousands upon thousands of tropical trees and coconuts left where they had fallen or sawn for rebuilding, or standing naked, their leaves, branches or their upper halves blown off.
After mass and before the relief distribution, the community drew joy and hope as Fr. Niel christened their three newest members: three-month old John Eman Berino, one-month old Remy Remaze Queen and two-month old Alyza Faeldin.
Aside from rice, Shoshin provided each relief beneficiary P500 cash support. Fr. Olano, who was accompanied by the church’s lay leaders, explained that the recipients were those not served during the first and second distribution of relief goods coursed through the parish.
Back in the parish, the team, guided by a crew from Capelco, and town councilor Ruby Ann Bello set out and delivered the remaining rice sacks to Tapaz, 25 for St. Andre Mission in barangay Taft under Fr. Romel Talabucon, and San Nicolas de Myra Parish under Fr. Wilson Navarrosa.
News of the relief mission soon reached Suhot in barangay Dolores where Fr. Olano had the visiting Baguio team billeted , in a spring resort developed by the municipal government.
“May 45 na pamilya rin dito at lahat sila ay biktima nga bagyo,” social worker Edralin Gico told the team upon its arrival for the night last Monday.
“Magkita tayo pag-gising namin bukas ( Let’s see each other when we wake up tomorrow,” Julian advised.
As there was no time to purchase more rice for the community, Julian whipped out P1,000 for each household.
The evening before, he met the Beneco crew who were leaving before dawn Tuesday. They had a month-long work repairing the lines in Roxas city, barangay Baybay Culasi, and the towns of Dau, Dumalag and Tapaz.
“Here’s a token of our admiration for what you have done for Capiz,” he said as he handed out a grand to each.
In an annual homecoming, Chees arrived here at the end of November to help defray the hospital expenses of financially strapped hospital patients here and in his native Bontoc, Mt. Province.
While he was here, his students, friends and supporters in southern Germany were pooling 15,650 euros (P908,158 for victims of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) aside from raising an earlier fund of 5,352 euros (P310,416) for Shoshin’s support to patients here.
Any amount remaining from the two funds will be left here for other patients who cannot sustain their treatments, he said.
Limwel Limjuco, area manager of Capelco, said there were about 60 typhoon fatalities in the whole of Capiz province (composed of Roxas City and 16 towns), comparatively low in relation to other areas as evacuation was forcefully done.
Along the highway from the Roxas Airport (which departure area roof was blown off) to Dumalag, were still-to-be-cleared signs of the nightmare: crumpled huts of the poor, mangled steel trusses stripped of roof sheets, thousands upon thousands of tropical trees and coconuts left where they had fallen or sawn for rebuilding, or standing naked, their leaves, branches or their upper halves blown off.
After mass and before the relief distribution, the community drew joy and hope as Fr. Niel christened their three newest members: three-month old John Eman Berino, one-month old Remy Remaze Queen and two-month old Alyza Faeldin.
Aside from rice, Shoshin provided each relief beneficiary P500 cash support. Fr. Olano, who was accompanied by the church’s lay leaders, explained that the recipients were those not served during the first and second distribution of relief goods coursed through the parish.
Back in the parish, the team, guided by a crew from Capelco, and town councilor Ruby Ann Bello set out and delivered the remaining rice sacks to Tapaz, 25 for St. Andre Mission in barangay Taft under Fr. Romel Talabucon, and San Nicolas de Myra Parish under Fr. Wilson Navarrosa.
News of the relief mission soon reached Suhot in barangay Dolores where Fr. Olano had the visiting Baguio team billeted , in a spring resort developed by the municipal government.
“May 45 na pamilya rin dito at lahat sila ay biktima nga bagyo,” social worker Edralin Gico told the team upon its arrival for the night last Monday.
“Magkita tayo pag-gising namin bukas ( Let’s see each other when we wake up tomorrow,” Julian advised.
As there was no time to purchase more rice for the community, Julian whipped out P1,000 for each household.
The evening before, he met the Beneco crew who were leaving before dawn Tuesday. They had a month-long work repairing the lines in Roxas city, barangay Baybay Culasi, and the towns of Dau, Dumalag and Tapaz.
“Here’s a token of our admiration for what you have done for Capiz,” he said as he handed out a grand to each.
In an annual homecoming, Chees arrived here at the end of November to help defray the hospital expenses of financially strapped hospital patients here and in his native Bontoc, Mt. Province.
While he was here, his students, friends and supporters in southern Germany were pooling 15,650 euros (P908,158 for victims of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) aside from raising an earlier fund of 5,352 euros (P310,416) for Shoshin’s support to patients here.
Any amount remaining from the two funds will be left here for other patients who cannot sustain their treatments, he said.
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