MARY Flor Quirante, 41, has no plans of returning to her house in Barangay Looc, Malabuyoc, Cebu anytime soon.
Quirante told Sunstar Cebu that she doesn’t want to relive the memory of seeing her mother lying dead after being pinned by a large rock.
Quirante’s mother, Flora Matas Basadre, 63, was killed when a mudslide covered their house when tropical depression Agaton struck the town last Tuesday.
Quirante recalled that she was with her parents, siblings and children in their house in Sitio North Suba, Barangay Looc last Tuesday dawn.
Her mother was monitoring the movements of the storm outside their house when she decided to go back to her room to rest.
A few minutes later, Quirante suddenly heard a bang from the direction of her mother’s room. Basadre was also heard screaming in pain.
When Quirante and her siblings entered the house, it was covered in smoke.
As the smoke cleared, Quirante and her siblings immediately went to her mother’s room.
There she found Basadre buried in rock and mud. A large boulder also pinned her.
It took two hours before emergency personnel retrieved Basadre. By then, it was too late.
Holding Basadre’s wake at her in-laws’ house, Quirante can only weep in grief over her mother’s fate.
Tragedy
Quirante said the incident traumatized her, her siblings and their children, who witnessed the tragedy.
Her father, Marshall, was the most affected by Basadre’s death.
Marshall, 67, told Sunstar Cebu that he couldn’t accept his wife’s death.
He never thought that the house they’ve been living for their whole lives could cause them so much pain. “Gamay pa na akong mga anak, diha nami nagpuyo. Dili nako ganahan mubalik didto. Masakitan ra ko (We’ve been living there since the children were little. But I don’t want to go back),” Marshall told SunStar Cebu.
But while Agaton took something from them, it also taught them one thing. They will no longer take their chances; they will no longer go back to that home, no matter how much it mattered to them. They will look for a safer location where they will rebuild their home and their lives.
In a separate interview, Malabuyoc Mayor Lito Creus said he plans to convince Basadre’s neighbors in Sitio North Suba to relocate to another area following the accident.
Creus confirmed that the area is landslide-prone.
The municipal and provincial governments have also provided financial assistance to Basadre’s family. (JKV)