'Yolanda' survivors honor loved ones in nameless graves

PALO, Leyte, Nov. 2 (PNA) -- Hundreds of supertyphoon Yolanda survivors visited nameless graves in San Joaquin village of this town that holds memory of their loved ones killed by the catastrophe three years ago.

The mass grave site is located in front of the San Joaquin Parish Church and along a major thoroughfare in Leyte. It is the final resting place of 378 residents of the village and some unknown casualties of the Yolanda tragedy.

A non government organization converted the place into a flower garden and engraved the names of victims in a granite built near the garden’s gate.

Marilou Bidua, 43, who lost her husband when storm surges hit their village, said that during the commemoration of the All Souls' Day and supertyphoon Yolanda anniversaries, she visits the site to light up candles, bring flowers and pray for the soul of her husband.

Bidua admitted that three years on, it is still hard for her to move on from the tragedy. Whenever she visits the site, she does not feel like being there because the pain of seeing her husband killed keeps coming back.

"I saw how my husband helped our neighbors out of the strong water current. He was hit by a log and drowned. Everything is still on my mind," Bidua added.

On the other side of the mass grave stood Corazon Pudadera, 49, from Babatngon, Leyte, who also lost her husband during the typhoon.

Pudadera's husband worked as a care-taker of a fishpond in San Joaquin village when the typhoon hit central Philippines. She described her husband as a family-oriented man.

"Two days before Yolanda, he returned home in Babatngon and told me to ensure safety of our children since the typhoon is very strong," said Pudadera, while reminiscing her husband’s final words.

Pudadera still visits the site every year although her husband's name is not engraved in the granite. It is a way of her to move on whenever she visits the mass grave.

"I just accept that it is the reality and it already happened," said Yulo Villas, 56, from San Joaquin, who lost two of his siblings and their families when Yolanda struck.

Villas said that his wife and children were safe during the typhoon, but what saddened him when he learned that his elder brother and younger sister and their families did not survive. He visited the site to light up candles to remember them.

"Everything happens for a reason," Villas added.

After the observance of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, families of Yolanda victims will revisit mass graves to commemorate the third year of the supertyphoon on Nov. 8. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/Aldwin John M. Cadayong (OJT)/egr