A week after the 6.9-magnitude earthquake forced families in Bogo City out of their homes and into makeshift tents, a new challenge has emerged among the displaced: increasing number of people with coughs, colds, and fever.
The City Health Office of Bogo has recorded an increase in patients complaining of respiratory illnesses since families began staying outdoors after the September 30 tremor.
Assistant City Health Officer Dr. Shiela Faciol said health workers continue to provide services despite their office being partially inaccessible.
Faciol explained that medical teams have been deployed to barangays to reach the sick among quake-affected families. On average, each medical team attends to 80 to 100 patients in various barangays visited, she said.
Meanwhile, the city health department itself receives 50 to 80 walk-in patients daily. ‘Since Day One after the earthquake, open jud ang atong city health,’ Faciol said.
Most of the reported cases are cough, colds, and fever. Parents often attribute the illnesses to children sleeping outside in makeshift shelters, exposed to the sweltering daytime heat and the cold nighttime air. ‘In daytime init kaayo kay makaubo sad unya ig gabii sad matun-ogan. Prone jud to ubo-ubo,’ Faciol said.
While food supplies remain a challenge, she clarified that there have been no reports of diarrhea or food poisoning among evacuees.
The city health office, supported by donations from private groups and other LGUs, continues to distribute medicines and vitamins. ‘Tanang patients na moanhi diri tagaan jud namog vitamins para makuan pud ilang resistensiya,’ she noted.
For many families, however, sickness is only one layer of hardship. In Barangay Gairan, Sally, a mother of two young girls, has been living in a cramped tent together with six other families.
Eight days after the quake, they still refuse to return home out of fear of stronger aftershocks. Their tarpaulin shelter offers little comfort against the blistering heat in the day and the cold winds at night.
Her daughters have since fallen ill – one has had a fever for two days, while the other is suffering from cough and colds.
‘Nalisang, na trauma. Gamayng uyog mahadlok dayon, mag panic ba,’ Sally said, adding that her children have yet to see a doctor, relying only on donated medicines and vitamins. She hopes her daughters recover soon.
Across Cebu province, official reports place the number of affected families at 192,489, equivalent to over 411,000 individuals. Bogo City alone accounts for more than 34,000 families displaced.
The 11 in Hacienda Filomena
The skies wept over Bogo City yesterday, October 8, as eleven dead victims of the rockslide in Hacienda Filomena, Barangay Binabag, were finally laid to rest.
The gray weather mirrored the sorrow of a community still reeling from tragedy. Ten coffins were laid side by side in a mass grave, while another was buried separately.
They were residents who perished when the mountainside collapsed during the 6.9-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday night, September 30.
In an instant, families were buried alive beneath massive boulders that crashed down from the hills. Among the victims was a two-year-old child, the youngest to die in the disaster.
At the final wake Mass, the father of the child sat in silence, his grief too deep for words. Just three months ago, he had already buried his wife, who died of illness. Now, he has lost not only his partner in life but also their only child.
The Malinao family was among the hardest hit. Parents Janice and Philip John, along with their children Carl Justin and John Steve, were buried together.
In another home, siblings Zachary, 5, and Thirdy Josh, 8, of the same family also lost their lives when their house was crushed by falling rocks.
Ariana Faith Tapang and her daughter, Regina Mae, were also among those who did not survive.
But one story that touched many was that of 17-year-old Lady Jean Ytang, who died a hero.
When the earth shook and their house began to collapse, she ran back inside to shield her mother and baby sibling from the falling rocks.
Barangay Binabag, a mountain-foot village in Bogo City, at least 15 lives were lost in the barangay alone, and many more were displaced as homes were destroyed
Beneath the earth, three feet under, the bodies in coffins now rest together.