06/10/2025
๐๐๐๐๐๐: Unshaken Truth
On the evening of September 30, 2025, a destructive 6.9 magnitude earthquake rocked the entire island of Cebu and its nearby provinces. The epicenter was located 17 kilometers offshore from Bogo City. The earthquake generated an enough force that caused a massive destruction in almost all areas in the Northern Cebu especially in Bogo City which is the nearest in the epicenter. The said earthquake took the lives of, based on the latest data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council or NDRRMC, atleast 73 people where 33 are from Bogo City. Aside from that, the earthquake also generated a staggering 3 Billion pesos worth of infrastructure damages and left thousands of families homeless.
At this moment, they are now grasping for help as the earthquake not only destroyed their homes but also left them with uncertainty about how to survive in the next couple of days. Without Food, Water, Clothes, or any necessities needed to survive, they now feel like they will not perish from the earthquake itself, but from the impacts of it to their every day lives. As such, seeing my fellow Cebuanos suffering from the impacts of this calamity is such a painful thing. Children across the street waving their placards, elderly people forcing themselves to walk to access relief goods, people sleeping in the street enduring the coldness of the night, and others who enveloped themselves with plastic covers just to stay dry and be able to sleep in the middle of the rain, these are things that broke my heart as I scroll in my social media feed.
Now, thankfully, help has finally reached them. With the efforts from different sectors, the people can now be able to access these help and be able to survive for a moment. Countless private institutions, together with the Provincial Government, extend their help to the victims of the calamity especially to the hard hit areas.
But despite these efforts, issues about the quickness of the distributions of these relief goods have occured. My social media account is fed with many individuals expressing their disappointments about the delays on the distributions of much needed relief goods to the most affected families in the most affected areas in Northern Cebu. Posts from different pages, personalities, and even an account from a student officer, they share a common issue, that the Local Government Units in some municipalities have not yet distributed these goods despite the fact that their people are badly needing all of these. Because most of the private institutions who extend their help have coordinated with the Local Government Units of these hard-hit areas to facilitate the distribution of these goods as they presumed that they exactly know who needed it the most.
An open letter was posted in the person of Chris Mahilum addressed to the Cebu Provincial Government and to Governor Pamela Baricuatro pleasing to look after to the issue relating to the stock piling of relief goods in the Bogo City Gymnasium.
Another post from an individual, named Danica Anna Misterio-Villanueva, expresses the disappointment of the people in the part of some individuals who, even though they helped, but with rudeness. They even ran to go after the vehicles utilized on their distribution efforts.
In addition, an officer of CTU-BARILI Supreme Student Government, named Anna (not her real name), also expressed her outrage during our interview on the unacceptable process of so called listing and identifyng the beneficiaries of these relief goods in Medellin, Cebu. According to her, sending people for verification only risks the lives of the people involved as they still experience aftershocks related to the recent earthquake in Bogo City. She also can't believe on the part of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on their verification efforts on identifyng the partially and totally damages houses. She stated that even a house that can't be sheltered anymore due to structural damages is still considered as partially damaged. I can't do but to think about how could this department came up with the definition of totally and partially damage? Do they want to see it flatten or crumbled just to consider it as totally damaged? Or do they need to live with it by themselves to see if their definition is justified or not? I do believe they have to check for the definition of these words on the dictionary before concluding.
However, she, together with the students of CTU-Barili Campus living in the Northern Cebu, wanted to express their greatest gratitude to all the students of CTU-Barili and to all organizations who initiated such donation drives for their efforts and kindness for giving in any way possible, their help to all the victims of this calamity. Although they are also victims, we are also victims, but we still see beyond on who needs the most.
Meanwhile, a video circulating online via page named Boss J Blog shows an argument between the victims and uniformed personnel because of the initiative implemented mandating the people who want to access those goods to present a coupon. People were upset and decided to leave with nothing.
These statements, although some claims are still under validation, only shows the truth behind all of these. We only see the outside, we only see that help is coming, but the question is, do the help really reached those in need? Or do we need to see beyond on what they show to us to understand the repeating issue when a calamity hits? Because I do believe these claims reveals what is really happening at the ground zero. I cannot imagine myself being on that situation that the very government that we rely on these times of crisis are also the one who add on our sufferings. It's like adding a salt to a wound, its painful. But seeing the one who add the salt is more painful than the salt itself. The one we believe will helps us heal and rise again is instead causing us to be crumbled and down.
This is not an isolated case nor a new one, this has also been a tradition for many years. The recent is the discovery of the spoiled and expired goods intended for the victims of Typhoon Odette victims in Cebu that is according to the Commission on Audit report in 2023 published 2 years later. From the recent calamities up until now, the pattern is the same, the help is there, but it looks like its unreachable. Not because the people don't know where to find it, but because the ones they knew will help them is slowing the process.
But let us still give them the benefit of the doubt. Let us give them the chance to fix the system. The government is doing it's job which is the right thing to do. But they should not forget that we are watching them. Every second wasted due to the slow process of distribution, is another second of uncertainty and every second of uncertainty, is another second of suffering. Every grain of help feeds hunger, every drop of water satisfies thirst, every photon of light is hope, and every piece of cloth is their refuge.
I do pray that all the Local Government Units on these areas will see not just what their eyes have seen, but also to those who their eyes doesn't see but needs the most. May their hearts be touched by the cries of the victims. May their minds think about the people and their needs. This is not the perfect time for politics and corruption, this is the perfect time for leadership and compassion.
I do also pray that may the people be more compassionate on their efforts. Let us not be rude to everyone. Because I do believe that a penny donated with a grateful heart is worth a million than a million donated with rudeness and hypocrisy.
I encourage you all to be watchful to them. Us, as youths, should demand quick response and accountability to these institutions. Let us not let them waste these goods that were produced through sweat and blood of the hardworking hand of the Filipino people. This should reach those who's in need.
