WHEN Neliun Tapang ended a video call with his partner Joan and their two children on September 30, 2025, he didn’t know it would be their last.
Nearly three hours later, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck northern Cebu, burying his family under their home in the mountainous area of Barangay Binabag, Bogo City.
Tapang, who works in Cebu City as a construction worker, told SunStar he was in Cebu City for work when he received a call that something had happened to his family.
Earlier that evening, around 7 p.m., he was still laughing with Joan and their children, aged two and six, through a video call from his bunkhouse.
Hours later after the clock struck 9:59 p.m., their home had collapsed.
Baffled and lost, Tapang recalled how he saw Joan embraced their two children and nephew crushed by fallen rocks from the hillside the next morning of the quake.
He regretted their decision to move back to the mountainous area three months ago in July, after he left his job and the family decided to relocate in Binabag.
“Mingawon gyud ko nila, mao ra tawn ni ang maulian nako. Dako gyud akong pagmahay nibalik mi,” said Tapang while teary-eyed.
The family had been looking forward to a beach outing in the first week of October, plans that would never come to pass.
Tapang will now devote his attention to caring for Joan’s 12-year-old son, the sole survivor who escaped death after stepping outside to urinate, even as he continues to cope with the loss of his family.
Joan, a housewife, and her two children were among the 11 victims in Barangay Binabag, Bogo City, who will be laid to rest at Corazon Cemetery Wednesday, October 8, 2025. (DPC)