LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET—The mud and debris that claimed hundreds of lives last week when the rains unleashed by Tropical Storm “Pepeng” (international codename: Parma) toppled mountainsides here and inundated towns in Pangasinan and La Union are now disgorging mementos and memories.

On Oct. 9, rescue workers dug out “Mister Men”—a banana-shaped stuffed toy that served as 5-year-old Kurt Guinaran’s pal and confidante.

The bodies of Kurt and his parents were found under a mountain of mud that buried their house in Sitio Eastern Buyagan in La Trinidad town.

Kurt’s grieving kin asked volunteer rescue workers to find Mister Men. When the toy was found, it was cleaned up and tucked in the boy’s arms, according to his grandaunt Erlinda Dulnuan.

It will be buried with him, she said.

A kilometer away in the community of Little Kibungan, where a landslide killed 73 people while they were sleeping, survivors and their relatives took heart in a teenager’s journal that was recovered from the debris.

Ruthify Valdez, a junior at Benguet National High School, left a poem along with her thoughts in the journal, which served as her class exercise in creative expression.

These were the last lines she wrote: “But once you’re up/ and back on track/ you will be a better one./ That’s the way of life,/ you just don’t live it/ you LEARN from it.”

Ruthify’s teacher Rachelle Basalong said she had lost three of her students.

“I don’t know how I can meet my class again. Many of them lost their homes and families,” she said.

Counseling services

In Baguio City, Rafael Valencia, president of the civic group 911 On Call, said rescue workers recovered the body of a barangay councilman from the rubble in East Bayan Park.

The councilman appeared snug and peaceful in bed when found. Under his feet lay his dead cat, which had stuck by him to the end.

Mementos like Mister Men and enduring images like the loyal pet often help survivors because these represent attachments to a relationship that was abruptly severed by tragedy, said Shirley Socalo, a social worker and coordinator of the Cordillera Parents Federation Inc.

The group has been conducting trauma counseling services for 130 children
who survived a landslide at Barangay Kayan East in Tadian, Mountain Province, that killed 39 other residents.

The landslide occurred at 6 p.m. on Oct. 8, as families prepared to sit down to dinner.

How to explain

The mementos comfort the adults more than the children, but they also serve as a lifeline for children confronting tragedy for the first time, Socalo said.

On Monday, Kurt Guinaran’s younger brother, Ivan, asked his relatives about his missing family: “I miss my mama, papa and Kurt. Is my brother dead? Can I kiss him? ... If they are dead, who will buy Coke for me? Is Mister Men dead, too? I want to see them. I miss them all.”

Dulnuan, the boys’ grandaunt, said she and other kin did not know how they would explain to Ivan that his parents and brother were dead.

“I feel sorrow that four members of my family are dead, but it is sadder to learn that there are more families who died in the landslides,” she said.

Photo albums, books

In Pangasinan, Susan Yadao, a reporter and program host of Aksyon Radyo in Dagupan City, clutched at photo albums that surfaced as the floodwaters began to recede.

The albums contain pictures of her daughter Zharlene, a nurse, who was killed by unidentified assailants in July.

“My husband Noli had been looking at the photos, so the albums were in his workshop. I was not able to put them in a safe place before the waters
rose,” Yadao recalled.

In the town of Rosales, happiness for Shirley Morden was discovering the little box that held a gold necklace in the mud.

The necklace is her only memento from a jewelry retail trade.

In Barangay Salay, Mangaldan, one of the hardest hit towns, grade school teacher Gerwillyn Moulic recovered school books she had not seen for decades.

Moulic, 23, spent hours trapped on her house’s roof during the flood.

When the books surfaced, she was reminded of a school achievement—earning first honors at Pangasinan Christian Education Center in Mangaldan.

During stress debriefing, children caught in the Kayan East landslide were asked what they lost in the tragedy, Socalo said.

What they said may provide psychologists and social workers insights on how well children can adjust to trauma, “because the children who no longer miss little [attachments] would be the first to move on from the calamity,” she said.

A 10-year-old boy admitted that when his father ordered them to flee their house as the landslide struck, his first instinct was to return to look for clothes. He ended up grabbing an umbrella before he ran to join his family.

“I asked him why he did not stop for his favorite toy. He said he wanted something he could use,” Socalo said.

Gratitude, guilt

Many children who shared their thoughts at the debriefing admitted feeling a jumble of fear, gratitude and guilt.

One of the Kayan East children said he ran away from his home “and did not anymore think about his mom and his papa,” Socalo said. “When he saw his little sister, he felt a little regret.”

Other children complained of nightmares.

The town of Tadian is still plagued by blackouts, Socalo said, adding:

“The children told me they pray a lot or allow their parents to tuck a bolo (big knife) under their pillow, like old folks, so the nightmares won’t occur.”

The tragedy has also hurt the heroes, and this requires children some time to process, Socalo said.

Kurt Guinaran’s rescuers, for example, also died.

Siegfried Ngoloban, Richard Balusdan and Rex Mang-oy, all firemen, died under an avalanche of mud and rocks while they were rescuing landslide victims. With reports from Frank Cimatu, Inquirer Northern Luzon