SLB Disaster Response

“For the brotherhood!” We cheered as we gathered around a bountiful feast of food, drink, and company, concluding a two-day relief operation around Baguio and Benguet where we had been shuttling goods across highland towns and cities which had been devastated by the recent typhoons. Volunteers from various groups had tirelessly pitched in their efforts by providing goods, drop-off areas, manpower, transportation, location and information – we all deserved a break.

Our group, headed by Bro. IJ Chan-Gonzaga of the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan-Task Force Noah (SLB-TFN) and composed of Jesuit brothers and the Loyola Mountaineers (LM), began the SLB-TFN Lingap Luzon relief operations on an early Saturday morning of October 17. Two trucks picked-up packed relief goods from Robinson’s Supermarket in Dagupan. Robinson’s, through Michelle Juan, had coordinated with SLB-TFN for purchase, packing and delivery. We pushed off for Baguio and met up with our counterparts in St. Louis University (SLU).

Seven hours and one game of Taboo later, we were riding around Baguio City, dropping off thirty percent of the twenty-eight tons we had brought with us (the seventy percent had gone on another truck to Ilocos Sur along with another group of Jesuits). Together with our local partners, the SLU Lab High School Batch ’84 headed by Mr. JP Alipio, we went into towns surrounded by mounds of rubble, saw mountainsides slashed by storms, and gave relief to people with tragedies to tell. Forming assembly lines from our vehicles, we didn’t care that we were going to unload two thousand packs; we had fun breaking our backs.

We ended that Saturday at the Mirador Jesuit Retreat House. Slumping weary bodies on soft beds, we slept happy with our accomplishment and excited for the four a.m. wake-up call for another round of unloading. Funnily though, we slumbered all the way to a bright Sunday morning, waking up baffled why we hadn’t been roused and if we’d been left behind by the incoming operations. As it turned out, the trucks bearing the goods had been stranded on slippery roads on the way up to Baguio, forcing them to stay put all night. Ah, we said, what a relief (pun intended). We went to an airfield in ___, Benguet, where we were literally blown by the appearance of a UN Humanitarian Air Services helicopter. Unfortunately, our eagerness could not get us within a hundred meters of standing room in the aircraft, so we just settled for the old-school tourist photograph. The helicopter was to deliver the goods to cut-off outer municipalities in Benguet; soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and police officers of the local government assisted in loading the goods.

We left to continue our deliveries, stopping over at a warehouse provided by the SLU Lab High School Batch ’84 to refill our vehicles. Afterwards, we rested in a nearby coffee shop while waiting for the final round of deliveries. Playing a derivation of Scrabble, we Squabbled for five hours until we were booked to drop off the last eight tons at the Diocese of Baguio’s Bishop’s residence; hopefully, these would augment the aid in Kibungan, Takadang, Dalipey, Bakun, Bokod, Kapangan, Kibungan, Tublay, Tuba and Atok.

It would have been great to end the day with a sunny afternoon but as we trooped back o the warehouse, it began to rain. Fortunately, before the cold got to our bones, hot vats of pinikpikan (chicken dish), kinilaw na kambing (goat meat marinated in vinegar), nilagang kambing (goat stew), papaitan (bitter goat stew), and rice wafted aromas to us. We ate (galit-galit muna) until the silence ended and then we all burst with the stories we had been aching to share. Soon, friendships were forming across generations of young and old, men and women, lay and religious; the conversations would have lasted into the evening had we not an itinerary to catch.

Riding back to Manila, we rehashed the experience. We ran through the nooks of individual efforts, the crannies of solidarity transcending years, the fleeting experiences of communing with people from all walks of life, and the permanent understanding of how people, in this case we Filipinos, can drop barriers for the sake of camaraderie in the face of calamity.

The SLB-TFN Lingap Luzon relief operations would like to thank the following for their generous aid: the teachers and students of St. Louis University (SLU) Laboratory High School, SLU Boys High Class 84 Foundation, SLU Boys High Alumni Foundation, SLU Laboratory High School and the SLU LHS Parents Advisory Council, the Diocese of Baguio, Bennie Grace Nabua for referring us to local truckers of Dagupan, Gregory Loy of SLU Boys High Class 84, Robinson’s Supermarket, the Loyola Mountaineers, and all the donors who sent immediate help to our fellowmen.