INSTEAD of sipping coffee, Mark Rizaldy Miral found himself throwing buckets of water at 5:30 a.m. last May 7.
He had only been up for 30 minutes, but the adrenaline kept him wide awake to help his neighbors put out the fire that broke out in their neighborhood.
Daybreak was barely visible through the thick smoke that engulfed the skies of Sitios Kawit and Ermita Proper in Barangay Ermita in Cebu City.
Miral called out to young bystanders to douse with water the structures in the area, especially those that were made of light materials.
He and his team were able to save some houses, but he was unable to stop the flames from engulfing his own house.
His family lost everything, except for the clothes on their backs.
“Ermita had only seen two huge fires before this one. First was in 1997 and the most recent one was in 2003. If we didn’t help each other, I think more houses would have been razed,” Miral told Superbalita in Cebuano.
The fire razed 300 houses, including Miral’s. It also displaced more than 700 families, or 2,500 individuals, who are temporarily taking shelter in the Ermita Elementary School and the barangay gym.
The fire may have destroyed his house, but it did not raze Miral’s passion to serve.
As barangay captain, Miral called for an emergency session with his councilmen at 10 a.m. on the same day to discuss the declaration of a state of calamity.
The barangay had P450,000 in its calamity funds. It used P112,500 to purchase housing materials that it distributed to survivors.
Miral may have survived the calamity, but he still had to hurdle yet another challenge.
There were only seven days to go before Election Day when the fire struck Ermita, and Miral was running for reelection under the opposition.
The 35-year-old admitted having woes and concerns as to how the calamity would affect his campaign.
“Double hard work was needed, but I just set it all aside. My priority was to help the other survivors and make sure no one got sick. Politics was just secondary,” he added.
But from the ashes Miral rose. He and his councilmen and their Sangguniang Kabataan candidates defeated the candidates of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan with a 16-0 sweep.
With a margin of around 1,000 votes, he defeated BOPK’s candidate Amor Feliña to remain as Ermita barangay captain.
“I am overwhelmed and grateful for the support. Despite all the challenges, the people trusted me because they know who I am,” Miral said. (With PAC of Superbalita)