Florderisa DeDios’ great, great granddaughter, left, is one of more than 100 students who will attend the new Omaya Elementary School. Philippine and U.S. Air Force engineers are working together to build a new schoolhouse for the local community. The Omaya schoolhouse is one of eight engineering civic action projects (ENCAP) being performed by Combined/Joint Civil Military Operations Task Force (CJCMOTF) units in support of exercise Balikatan 2013.Balikatan 2013 (BK13) is an annual Philippine-U.S. bilateral exercise. Humanitarian assistance and training activities enable the Philippine and American service members to build lasting relationships, train together and provide assistance in communities where the need is the greatest. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chris Fahey/RELEASED).
SAN NARCISO, Philippines - From where her porch used to sit Florderisa DeDios remembers when the schoolhouses, her home and the rest of her Omaya neighborhood in the San Narciso Municipality was consumed by volcanic ash following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
“We were nervous … very nervous,” recalled DeDios. “We were all panicking, and we couldn’t decide where to go because we didn’t know where we could go. There were a lot of people who evacuated to different places. We stayed here, because we didn’t have anywhere else to go. We stayed right here on the mountain.”
In all, dozens of homes, acres of crops, expensive irrigations systems, businesses, places of worship, schools – an entire community – was buried under the falling ash. Atop the ground where the suffocated neighborhood once sat, a blue cross stands. For more than 20 years, the chapel beneath this cross has been buried in a tomb, encased by ash. Before the eruption, the cross served as a beacon, towering above a Catholic church once rich with frequenters and filled with beautiful holy relics. Now, the 3-foot cross surrounded by shrubs, stands as a reminder to Barangay Captain Onofre Soler of what his friends and neighbors have overcome.
“When Mt. Pinatubo erupted, it was dark for two days,” he said waiving to the sky. “After the disaster, most people stayed because they relied on the mountain and their farms to survive. The town issued tidal wave warnings and then two years later another storm hit and the remaining parts of the barangay were buried under ash that came down from several landslides. With God’s blessing, our barangay has been improving ever since.”
Now, more than 20 years later, both DeDios and Soler have watched their Barangay almost fully recover.
“Our roads are now nearly all paved, we have a mineral water system for the town’s drinking water and education has always been really important to us. So, when we heard Exercise Balikatan was coming to build us a new school, we were all really excited.”
The neighbors who once shared loss now share enthusiasm as they all await completion of the new Omaya schoolhouse. DeDios’ great,-great-granddaughters are one of many local Barangay children who watch the combined team of U.S. and Philippine Air Force engineers work through blistering heat to construct the split-level dual-classroom building – one of several engineering civic action projects undertaken during Balikatan 2013.
Since the original schoolhouses remain buried under nearly 40-feet of ash and a river, Omaya has used two separate schoolhouses to hold studies. The main building sits at the river’s edge, about 100-feet below the other. When the Philippine storms surge through the province, the rising river raises concerns for the children’s safety. The new schoolhouse will sit on an elevated piece of the school’s property, free from the rising river water. This important aspect of the planning will help ensure the children will be free from that danger.
“Education is the only legacy we can offer our children,” said Omaya mother Marylin Palaylay. “We don’t have much money or belongings, so their inheritance is knowledge. Nothing can ever take it away.”
Many U.S. engineers from the visiting 773rd Civil Engineering Squadron in Alaska come from, or have worked in, impoverished areas. A chance to know the community, interact and understand what people like DeDios, Soler and Palaylay have endured, gives them a chance to grasp the impact a single schoolhouse can have. This has given troops like Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Hughes a larger appreciation for his service.
“I feel very blessed to be here and to help these people with their situation.” said Hughes. “They appreciate our help very much. They’re out here every day watching us, giving us thumbs up and saluting us each day we show up. Anything we need, they are here to help us and that feels really great.”
The Omaya schoolhouse is one of eight engineering civic action projects being performed by Combined/Joint Civil Military Operations Task Force units in support of exercise Balikatan 2013.
Balikatan 2013 is an annual Philippine-U.S. bilateral exercise. Humanitarian assistance and training activities enable the Philippine and American service members to build lasting relationships, train together and provide assistance in communities where the need is the greatest.
http://www.dvidshub.net/news/104589/omaya-elders-recall-destructive-past-predict-brighter-future
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