BANTAYAN ISLAND, CEBU — “We will rise again…stronger and better than ever.”
Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Environmental Law Antonio Oposa made the pledge after Typhoon Yolanda wiped out his School of the SEA in barangay Ocoy in Sta. Fe town.
This is the second time that the School of the SEA was closed because of typhoon damage, the first time being last June 21, 2008 when Typhoon Frank swept through the island of Bantayan. It reopened in May 2012 only to close again after Typhoon Yolanda.
In an email to friends and supporters, Oposa said that while everyone involved in running the school are safe, only two out of the seven structures remain standing–the White House (and conference hall), which suffered damage, and the Climate Change House.
“The CCH suffered very minor damage as it was designed to be climate resilient, and to be sufficient in food and water even during an emergency,” Oposa said.
The Climate Change House is designed from the lessons of Typhoon Frank that totally destroyed the original structure of the School of the SEA, he said.
The inspiration to build the School of the SEA came to Oposa in 1996 after discussions on ecology conservation with Durwood Zaelke, president and founder of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development.
At that time, the inspiration was to build a “retreat house for environmental thinkers”. Atty. Oposa also established the Durwood Zaelke Center for Environmental Law the School of the SEA in Bantayan in honor of his friend.
Oposa said that while the sight of the damage is too painful to make him even cry, “it is more painful to see my neighbors and surrounding communities, people who have much less, and yet lost even the little that they had.”
Visited by this writer last Thursday, neighbors of Oposa in Alice Beach in barangay Ocoy, Sta. Fe, were awaiting assistance and wondered where to get their next meal.
“When we get really hungry, we eat coconut meat to fill our stomachs,” said a lady who sat beside her flattened house in the midst of a coconut field. She and her neighbors said they have yet to receive aid.
Over at the Municipal Hall, Sta. Fe Mayor Jose Esgana supervises relief efforts. Aid to Bantayan island victims, he noted, goes mostly to Bantayan town. “People probably still don’t know that there are three municipalities in Bantayan — Sta. Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos.”
While the aid keeps coming, the municipality lacks volunteers to assist in distributing the goods and to help in the monstrous task of cleaning up after the typhoon.
Esgana said they give out food packs good for two days at a time. “All the 10 barangays of Sta. Fe have already been given relief goods,” Esgana said.
Bantayan Island had a thriving tourist industry because of its white sand beaches akin to Boracay island. More than 40 small resorts could be found in Sta. Fe alone. All that is gone, and many residents who worked for these establishments are now jobless.
With Typhoon Yolanda also wiped out the poultry industry of the island, poultry owners had no choice but to give out or sell their remaining hens at a low price. “This helped the islanders survive right after the typhoon,” Esgana said.
Atty. Oposa said that in his own little way, he immediately started a jobs-generation activity just for people to get out of their daze, and back on their feet — clearing the debris, chopping wood, making fish condos and urban edible gardens.
“Giving people livelihood activities (of only about P200 or US$5 a day) will give them a source of income to start rebuilding their lives, and restore their sense of self-worth,” he said.
Atty. Oposa said he looks forward to starting the repair and re-construction of model structures in the School of the SEA, replicating the climate-resilient features of the Climate Change House. That, he said, will create more jobs.
