BEING a rescuer is bittersweet: you save a life and you retrieve the dead.
Cormac was one of the dozens of rescuers who helped evacuate City of Naga residents living in danger zones. He has only been a rescuer for two years and it was his first time to respond to a tragedy as member of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO).
While one of the unsung heroes of the landslide that hit Sitio Sindulan, Barangay Tina-an, City of Naga, 24-year-old Cormac requested anonymity for this interview. He said he could not describe in words what he felt after saving a life and retrieving a dead person.
He and his fellow members of the CDRRMO were among the first responders at the scene after receiving a call about the incident at 6 a.m. last Thursday.
He said he saw himself having an easy life with a career aboard ships after graduating with a nautical science degree in 2016, but yesterday’s incident made him think twice about his future. He now believes he is worthy to be part of the community of rescuers, who, in their effort to save lives, forgot their hunger.
Cormac said rescuers had difficulty clearing the boulders that fell on houses. He joined a team of Bureau of Fire Protection 7 personnel in saving the life of a 16-year-old girl.
The rescue did not put a smile on his face after he learned that the girl’s younger sister was trapped dead inside their house.
“Wala siyay laing nasulti namo. Sige na siya’g hilak tungod sa iyang igsuon (She didn’t say anything else to us. She just kept crying because of her sibling),” Cormac said.
After saving the teen, the team later recovered the dead.
Cormac said he has no definite plans as to when he will work as a seaman, but he is certain he will be searching for signs of life in the next few days in Sindulan.
“Unta naa pay mga buhi (I hope some of them are still alive),” he said.
A BFP 7 official lamented that their office and the Cebu local government units do not have life detector machines.
Three life detector machines only arrived yesterday with the search and rescue teams from the city governments of Pasig, Quezon and Pasay.
Past 4 p.m., the official said they did not detect any signs of life 10 feet below the rubble.