IN THE long list of victims of the earthquake that struck Cebu on Sept. 30, 2025, two names belong to fathers who lost nearly everything -- their children, their partners, their homes.
Now, as the fatalities are laid to rest in the same earth that claimed their lives, the loved ones they left behind walk through the ruins of what once was home, carrying memories heavier than the stones that fell.
Eleven wooden coffins stood side by side, 11 stories cut short by a landslide caused by the magnitude 6.9 offshore earthquake that struck northern Cebu.
Of the 11 victims from the mountainous area of Barangay Binabag, Bogo City, eight were children.
Last photograph
A young father grapples with the loss of his partner last July 10 to illness and now the loss of his two-year-old son whose last memory he holds is a photo taken a week before the quake.
Aryeel Caylan, 27, shared how on Sept. 22, his son asked to take a photo with him as he was about to return to Cebu City, where he works as a construction worker.
What felt like an ordinary moment would turn out to be their last. He didn’t know then that the photo they took that day would become his most treasured memory.
“Usa ka amahan, lisod kaayo mawad-an og anak, labi na og usa ra gyud. Lisod dawaton nga gikuha siya og sayo (As a father, it’s very difficult to lose a child, especially if there’s only one. It’s very hard to accept that he was taken early),” said Aryeel, who is, himself, an only child.
His son, Prince Kyle, aged two, was among the youngest of the 11 victims in Barangay Binabag.
The young man now holds on to the memories of his son through photographs and his favorite toy truck, which the boy loved to ride.
Prince once dreamed of becoming a policeman.
Last call
When Neliun Tapang ended a video call with his partner Joan Villamor and their two children, aged two and six, he didn’t know it would be their last.
Nearly three hours later, the earthquake buried his family under their home in the mountain village.
Tapang, who works in Cebu City as a construction worker, told SunStar Cebu 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 Villamor and their children in that video call from his bunkhouse.
Baffled and lost, Tapang recalls how he saw Villamor embrace their two children and her nephew — all 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 to Binabag.
“Mingawon gyud ko nila, mao ra tawn ni ang maulian nako. Dako gyud akong pagmahay nibalik mi (I will really miss them. I went home for them. I really regret coming back here),” said Tapang, with tears welling up his eyes.
Tapang will now devote his attention to caring for Villamor’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.
Fr. Ralph Romero Argoncillo, parish priest of the Holy Family of Nazareth Parish in La Paz, Bogo City, said it was heartbreaking to preside over the funeral rites of victims who were mostly young.
He offered words of comfort to the grieving families and a reminder of faith amid the tragedy.
The priest also reflected on the fragility of life, quoting part of his homily during the fiesta just before the quake struck.
On a gloomy day, the 11 victims were laid to rest on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at Corazon Cemetery in Bogo City, 10 in a mass grave, while one was buried in a separate burial chamber. / DPC