Pinatubo Day march marks cabalen triumph, resiliency

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    (PINATUBO 25. Former President Fidel V. Ramos receives award from a grateful Kapampangan people for his principal role in saving Pampanga from the devastation wrought by the Mount Pinatubo eruptions. Handing the trophy to FVR is Gov. Lilia G. Pineda with Levy Laus, chair of the executive committee on the 25th anniversary celebrations and Vice Gov. Dennis Pineda. Photo courtesy of Leo Villacarlos)

    BACOLOR, Pampanga— Survivors of Mt. Pinatubo’s cataclysmic eruption in 1991 and succeeding lahar flows numbering more than 3,000 marched to the lahar-buried San Guillermo church here on Wednesday in remembrance of the disaster.

    The commemorative walk was also meant to celebrate the people’s resiliency in their triumph over the tragedy, the world’s second largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century, on the 25th anniversary of its June 15, 1991 eruption.

    The marchers reached a kilometer long from the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Barangay Cabetican to the San Guillermo Church here.

    The image of the Virgen de los Remedios, patroness of Pampanga, borne on the shoulders of members of the Knights of St. Peter from the Apalit town, accompanied the marchers.

    At the lead were Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda and businessman Levy P. Laus, chair of the Mt. Pinatubo executive committee, which organized the events for the anniversary of the eruption.

    On October 1, 1995, rampaging lahar flows from the Pasig-Potrero River triggered by Typhoon Mameng struck this town and almost erased it from the map.

    At the lahar-buried San Guillermo Church, the marchers took part in a concelebrated Holy Mass with Archbishop Emeritus Paciano B. Aniceto as main celebrant.

    Aniceto congratulated the congregation for keeping faith in God during the disaster as he also thanked officials, foreign governments and nongovernment organizations for helping the people get back on their feet.

    Aside from Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales also bore the brunt of the eruption and lahar rampages that followed.

    Thousands of families from the three provinces that were literally uprooted from their homes were cramped in various public schools and government buildings which served as evacuation centers.

    In response to the tragedy, the government built 20 upland and lowland resettlement centers which still host 100,000 families displaced by the disaster that lingered until the 1997 rainy season.

    Gov. Pineda remarked that the eruption is a blessing in disguise as it provided Pampanga with “heaps of sand that would last for a hundred years or more.”

    This overabundance of sand is now Pampanga’s biggest source of revenue. The local quarry industry has generated some P1.9 billion for the province since 2010.

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