House Majority Leader Martin G. Romualdez and Tingog Party-List Rep. Yedda Marie K. Romualdez on Monday said the Waraynons’ resiliency will lead them to recover from the devastating effects of COVID-19 following their gallant stand from Super Typhoon Yolanda’s destruction eight years ago.
The Romualdez couple was joined by presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., who received a rock-star welcome from Leyteños, and Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez during the 8th annual commemoration of the onslaught of the super typhoon (international name Haiyan) in 2013.
They remembered thousands of people in the city and across the country who perished in the killer storm — one of the world’s most powerful typhoons in history — as Tacloban was considered ground zero and bore the brunt of record rains and building-high storm surges.
“Eight years after hitting rock bottom, Tacloban City and the entire Region VIII have moved on and recovered from the destruction of Yolanda. We will continue to rise, and we will recover once again, this time from the pandemic’s crippling effects,” Majority Leader Romualdez, chairman of the House committee on rules, said.
Rep. Yedda Romualdez, chairperson of the House committee on the welfare of children, credited the unity shown by the people behind Tacloban and Eastern Visayas’ for their immediate recovery from the devastation caused by Yolanda.
“It is through our solidarity as a region and as a community that we are able to look back into this day with strength and hope,” she said.
“Together we rise as people with resiliency and fortitude that we have gained from this experience,” Romualdez said, adding those who perished should not be forgotten, as their deaths raised awareness on disaster management and prevention not only in the country, but in the entire world.
“Despite the numerous challenges we face in our everyday lives, we always remain resilient to stay in the game. We do not allow difficulties to break us, that is the key behind our recovery,” her husband Martin Romualdez, who represents the first district of Leyte in Congress, said.
“We have faced and survived one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded in history. We have risen from this devastating experience, and we have shown to the rest of the world what we are capable of recovering because of our resiliency,” the president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats stressed.
“Let us continue in our journey towards building back a better and more resilient community. Let’s continue to bring hope as we face this pandemic because this day reminds us that better days will come, as they have before,” added Romualdez, a lawyer from the University of the Philippines (UP) and president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).
A Holy Mass and blessing of mass graves were held at the Holy Cross Memorial Park in Basper village. A marker engraved with the names of typhoon victims at the Tacloban City Convention Center grounds was also blessed.
Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez issued an executive order suspending work in government and schools on Nov. 8, 2021 to allow the Yolanda commemoration.
Meanwhile, clean energy and climate advocates, church leaders, faith-based groups, and frontline communities on Monday called to mind the devastation wrought by Yolanda and questioned the “climate-destructive energy and development decisions” the country and the world still choose to take since.
The sentiments were aired in a commemoration led by the Power for People Coalition (P4P), CBCP – National Laudato Si’ Program (CBCP-NLSP), Caritas Philippines, Laudato Si’ Movement Philippines, Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc. (PMPI), and Our Lady of Remedies Parish.
Yolanda ravaged Visayas the most, leaving an estimated 6,000-plus or missing and displacing millions.
The group said its furious onslaught “is recognized as a key trigger of calls to rethink climate-destructive practices, especially the use of highly polluting fossil fuels for energy needs.”
Eight years after Yolanda barreled through the central Philippines, former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat called on the government and the private sector to institute urgent and significant actions that will arrest climate change, which he said has literally become a matter of life or death for Filipinos.
Baguilat, who is running for senator in the May elections, stressed that the country is now one of the most vulnerable to natural disasters that have become more frequent and severe due to the steady warming of the atmosphere.
The impact would be even worse if world governments do not meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming at just 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels, he added.
Meanwhile, Tingog nominee Jude Avorque Acidre in a radio interview Monday morning shared the experiences and lessons that he learned in the aftermath of Yolanda’s devastation.
“Sabi namin, ‘Paano kami magsisimula ulit?’ Paano kaya babangon from a disaster that has practically snatched everything,” Acidre said.
“Alam mo ‘yung capacity ng tao na tumulong? Anoman ‘yung estado mo sa buhay, anoman ‘yung resources, gaano karami o kalimitado, ay palaging may magagawang tama at may magagawang mabuti na ikakabuti ng ibang tao,” Acidre said.
Groups like the volunteer firefighter and medic group Batch 8 Brotherhood and the Hope Christian High School, who were also present during the program, helped TINGOG’s home region Eastern Visayas to get back on its feet.