Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Mom watches her 2 girls vanish
CECILIA Heruelas, 42, could only pray as she saw the river wash away her two daughters in Guindarohan, Minglanilla.
“Bahalag mangapiang, basta buhi lang (I didn’t care if they got injured as long as they were alive),” she remembered asking the Lord.
She stared helplessly as Miriam, 15, who was carrying three-year-old Farrah Mae, held on to a thorny branch as the current swept at her ankles.
Although they were not far from her, the rushing water made it impossible for her to reach them. She didn’t want to risk the life of her other daughter, two-year-old Regine.
She and her daughters and a neighbor’s son had gone to their farm to pick corn Sunday afternoon.
They were on their way home, when they decided to take the shorter route along the riverbank.
Cecilia said it had been drizzling but the current did not seem alarming to them at the time.
Then the gush of water came streaming from the mountain, forcing them to scramble in different directions.
Cecilia said Christian was able to run along with her but Miriam, who was carrying Farrah Mae, had climbed on top of a boulder.
“Gamay paman ang tubig pero nagsige na og saka hangtod naabot sa iyang lapa-lapa (The water wasn’t that deep at first but it rose steadily),” Cecilia recalled.
Cecilia said Miriam kept crying when stones carried by the water hit her, but she told her to hold on and to look at the sky instead.
She said they all were shivering because it was raining, but no one could help them because there was no one around.
Suddenly, Miriam lost her hold on the branch and the river carried her and Farrah Mae downstream.
“‘Day, unsaon paman ka nako pagtubos (How can I help you)?” she remembered yelling, as she saw her two daughters disappear under the surge of muddy water.
It was not until 3 p.m. that residents found her with Regine and her neighbor’s son.
Volunteers scoured the riverbank throughout Guindarohan, and found Miriam seven kilometers downstream.
Farrah Mae remains missing.
There was some confusion about Farrah Mae’s whereabouts yesterday afternoon.
The record at the police blotter of the Minglanilla Police Station had stated that Farrah Mae, Regine and Cecilia were safe.
A policeman reading the blotter also said this over radio dyAB during its noon newscast.
When Sun.Star Cebu news team arrived in Barangay Guindarohan to ask Cecilia and her husband Dionisio about the incident, the couple was surprised about the news.
Minglanilla Police Chief Romeo Santander called Sun.Star later in the day to apologize for the confusion.
The Cebu Provincial Government and the Municipal Government of Minglanilla have set aside cash assistance for the Heruelas family.
There is no way to find out if the river’s water level becomes dangerous unless somebody upstream yells out a warning.
In the Heruelas’ case, nobody was there to caution them about the incoming water. (MEA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 31, 2007 issue)
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