Families, friends and village officials offered a Holy Mass and lit candles on All Saints’ Day for victims of Typhoon Sendong in Barangay Hinaplanon in Iligan City.
The Holy Mass, which was officiated by Reverend Father Rolando ‘Dodong’ Cantina of the Diocese of Iligan, was dedicated to the dead and missing individuals in the wake of the deadly typhoon, which struck on December 17, 2011.
Vernonico Echavez, former Hinaplanon barangay chairman and kagawad (councilor), told the Inquireron Tuesday, Nov. 2, that the mass was held in front of the barangay hall, where the names of over 500 missing persons were engraved in a lapida or marble wall.
‘Most of these missing individuals are my relatives,’ Echavez said in Bisaya.
Among the missing persons in the list is Michael Kundiman, a resident of Bayug Island and a broadcast journalist of then DXRJ station, Echavez said.
In Bayug Island, a memorial wall was also established, bearing the names of 1,600 individuals, including both the dead and the missing, he said.
Echaves said that some of the victims on the island were on Christmas vacation when the typhoon struck.
Many dead victims were buried in the public cemetery in Barangay Palao, where they are visited by relatives during Undas and other special occasions, Echaves said.