ACLOBAN CITY- Families who lost their houses due a fire incident in Barangay 56, Pericohon district, could stay at the pastoral center of the Redemptorist Church until they could rebuild their homes. This was the assurance made by Fr. Constantino Puzon, assistant parish priest of the Redemptorist Church, adding that it is their way of showing their mercy and compassion to the fire victims.
On New Year’s Eve, 110 families lost their houses when a big fire hit their village. Arson investigators have yet to come out the real cause of the fire but some residents claimed that it was due to a “kwitis” that hit a power line which was located at the house of one Salvacion Murillo, where the conflagration started. About 20 families are temporary staying at the pastoral center of the Redemptorist Church. Others sought temporary shelter to their respective relatives within the city. “We will allow them to stay here while we wait for them to recover. Maybe after a few days, they can go back to their places so they can rebuild their houses,” Fr. Puzon said.
The pastoral center of Redemptorist Church had become a usual evacuation site for calamity victims living along Magallanes and Pericohon districts. When supertyphoon “Yolanda” devastated Tacloban on December 8, 2013, hundreds of families also sought refuge at the Redemptorist Church. As immediate assistance, the parish provided clothes for the fire victims staying at the pastoral center. Cruzita Homerez, 75, is among the families now living temporarily at the pastoral center saying the New Year started rather sad to them. “I don’t know where we will go after here,” she said. (ROEL AMAZONA)
