ELMER “Spider” Herrera, a veteran cartographer, sat on a plant box on the sidewalk on New Imus Road, Cebu City yesterday afternoon.
Herrera, who draws sketches of crime suspects for the police, was checking the few drawing tools he salvaged from his aunt’s home that was burned down during the fire in Barangay T. Padilla Monday afternoon.
He was among more than 3,000 individuals who lost their homes to the fire.
A man, later identified as Elmo Mansero, wobbled his way toward Elmer. He was carrying a rooster, a bottle of Tanduay tucked inside his jeans’ back pocket, and his face was stained with blood after he was reportedly pecked by his rooster.
Mansero asked for Herrera’s help to go home but the latter decided to take him to the Day-as barangay hall.
When they arrived, Mansero confessed he tried to drown himself in alcohol to wash away his sadness over the loss of his home to the fire.
Alma Abuan, 30, used a carton as a sleeping mat for her and her three children since they have nowhere else to go.
Barangay sports complexes are being used as temporary shelters for the fire victims but Abuan said she preferred to stay there.
“We’ll just stay here because it’s near our house. There are so many people in the gym,” she said.
Alma’s jobless husband, Joeleto, 29, plans to bring them to Manila. But she isn’t sure if it will push through.
Alma and her children Wilma, 5; Marvin, 2; and Joey, four months old, enjoyed eating porridge served by a nearby restaurant.
Switch Coffee and Bar’s manager Al Raymond Abellar said they will serve porridge to at least 1,000 fire victims every day for one week.
“This is our way of helping the victims,” he said.
The staff of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will also pass the hat to collect financial assistance for their fellow police officers who were among those displaced by the fire.
CCPO Police Director Patrocinio Comendador Jr. said they will be providing assistance to Senior Insp. Vicente Velasquez and PO2 Maurice Caldosa.
The house of Velasquez, Homicide Section chief, was spared by the fire. But the ancestral house of his parents, where his mother resided, was razed.
Caldosa, on the other hand, was rendered homeless by the fire.
At the T. Padilla gym, Baby Sinajunon, 45, complained about the heat.
Sinajunon said she plans to put up a shanty on the lot where her house used to stand.
Bag-ong Lungsoranon photographer Sammy Navaja, 39, said last Monday’s fire was his third.
“Grand slam na ko sa sunog (I’m a champ when it comes to fires),” he said in jest.
He was six years old when a fire hit their home. The second one happened in 2004.
“My house was about to be finished, but unfortunately fire hit again. I already accepted my fate, though it’s painful. I’ll carry on,” he said.
Aside from losing their homes, some fire victims complained about the slow distribution of packed meals inside the T. Padilla gym.
Merna Elido, 20, said she waited in line for almost two hours.
“Barikosan mi’g paabot diri,” she said.
Meanwhile, some people took the opportunity to salvage nails, iron bars and steel roofing sheets and sell them to junkshops.
Both Lolita Dela Peña, 60, and Narina Ondona, 66, were among those who collected nails from a burned house.
“Nangiyawat mi aron makapalit og bugas og sud-an (We are doing this so we can buy food),” Ondona said. (With JTG)