Sunday, July 08, 2007 Tree saves 6 from fallen wall in Lapu-Lapu By Jovy S. Taghoy & Allan I. Varquez Sun.Star Staff Reporters
A FAMILY of six in Lapu-Lapu City narrowly escaped death before midnight last Friday when a subdivision’s 1.8-meter concrete wall fell and destroyed their house during a heavy downpour.
An ipil-ipil tree, which blocked the wall before it could flatten the house, saved the Pocong family of Sitio Caimito, Barangay Basak.
Georgita, 32, and her children George, 13; Ednajean, 11; Rejean, 6; Rica, 3; and Rejie, 1, were already asleep when the wall collapsed.
The sound of their house crumbling as the wall began to press it to the ground woke them up.
They cried for help, but their pleas were drowned out by the rain pounding on their iron roof.
The same downpour also caused a riprap wall to erode and damage a portion of a house along V. Rama Ave. in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.
Based on the report that the Guadalupe Police Station received, the incident occurred at 2:30 p.m. last Friday.
It damaged the kitchen and the laundry room of a two-story house rented by American national Don Herrington and his Filipina wife Anecita.
The riprap served as boundary between Villa Fatima Compound, where the house is located, and Pasadena Townhouses of Crown Communities Inc.
No one, however, was reported hurt.
Cab driver
In the Lapu-Lapu accident, Richard Pocong was profusely thankful that the ipil-ipil tree saved his family.
“Sus, porbida gyod intawon. Kon wala paning kahoya wala na ko’y maabtang buhi ining akong pamilya (Good heavens! If not for this tree, my family would have been killed),” he said as he pointed to the tree.
Richard, a taxi driver, said he was bringing passengers from Lapu-Lapu to Barangay Talamban, Cebu City when he received a call from his wife through his mobile phone when they reached A.S Fortuna St. in Mandaue City.
He said he asked his passengers to disembark without paying so he could immediately attend to his family.
Sitio Caimito has no drainage system, Richard said. When Colinwood Subdivision’s fence collapsed, rainwater was already knee-deep, almost at the level of their house’s floor.
Commonwealth Estate, Inc., though, blamed the Pocongs for occupying the lot beside the fence.
“The developer has rip-rapped the whole property and has applied all the necessary safety measures,” it said in a press statement.
It added that informal settlers covered the subdivision’s overflow pipes, where rainwater would have drained away.
Because the water no longer has an outside outlet, it soaked into the base of the fence, which eventually toppled over.
Despite the loss of their home, the Pocongs still have much to thank for, as not one family member was killed.
In September last year, water from the overflowing Sindulan creek in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City tore down a concrete wall and surged into a basement, trapping three children, their mother, and two others, until they drowned.
Richard said that although Ednajean cried for help because some wood from their ceiling pinned her neck, not one neighbor heard her.
Rafael Domen, Georgita’s 58-year-old brother whose house was just two meters away, saw what happened when he looked to check minutes after.
“Dunay nagsigi og kapakong sa ilang balay, hangtod nga dunay kusog kaayong lagapak. Nidali ko ug kanaog nagsigi ko og singgit ni Gingging (I heard something banging on their house, and then a crash. I rushed outside and called Georgita’s name when I saw what happened),” Domen said.
Because no one could hear them and he had no time to rush toward the nearest neighbor, Domen rescued his relatives, pulling them out from the rubble one after the other, by himself.
“Bisan ug lapok unya daghan ang tubig nikamang lang gyod ko para makasulod sa naguba nga balay aron maluwas nako ang mga bata ug akong igsoon (Although it was muddy and flooded, I crawled inside the destroyed house to save the children and my sister),” he said.
He found Rejie last because she could not be located until she cried for her mother.
“Kanang bata nag-ubo na sa sawog unya naghilak nga akong nahulbot. Porbida ug dili pa tungod sa Ipil-ipil disgrasya gyod kay kon dili mapatay sa paril malumos sa daghang tubig (That child was lying face down. If not for the tree, that wall would have killed her, or she would have drowned),” he added.
Ednajean had a swollen neck while the others, including Rejie, were unscathed.
A subdivision project engineer said Commonwealth Estate ordered him to have the house rebuilt farther from the wall and to pay the Pocongs for damages.
The official, who requested anonymity, denied the Pocong family’s allegation that construction of the collapsed wall did not conform to safety requirements. (AIV/JST)
