FROM Merry Christmas to many cracks, receiving gifts to claiming body bags, it’s the new reality of Christmas for the residents of quake-stricken Padada town, Davao Del Sur after the earthquake last December 15, 2019 dubbed as the strongest quake of the year.
It was a gloomy Sunday when the magnitude 6.9 quake, struck Padada and other neighboring municipalities even claiming 11 lives just ten days before the celebrating one of the happiest day of the year, Christmas.
Padada has become a ghost town with almost all establishments closed for business, terminals without buses, while bystanders vulture for updates for the trapped individuals under the collapsed Southern Trade Shopping Center from a far.
In his age, Fructuso Artiaga, a resident of Sulop, Davao Del Sur should be claiming food pack and gift checks from the government but this December, he claimed the body bag of his wife Evangelyn Artiaga, extracted from the collapsed Southern Trade Shopping Center a day after the quake. He immediately confirmed items gathered by the forensic team during the identification process before the body be released. Alongside his wife’s corpse extracted that day is another victim identified as Elsa Ababon who also bought items from the ill-fated grocery store in Padada.
According to the Davao Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, 14,078 individuals are displaced and are currently housed in different evacuation centers while some are camping under tents along the road.
With the tragedy in Davao Del Sur, residents will celebrate Christmas and the New Year in a different perspective but despite the downward yearend vibe of the province, Dabawenyos are known for its resiliency in times of tragedy.