The Waray spirit lives on

Waray-Waray hindi tatakas

Waray-Waray handang matodas

Waray-Waray bahala bukas

Waray-Waray manigas

— from the song by Eartha Kitt

MANILA, Philippines - As a Waray-Waray (from Las Navas, Northern Samar), I love that song from way back and more so now that my fellow Warays are keeping alive that indomitable Waray spirit in the wake of Supertyphoon Yolanda.

Northern Samar was also hit but not as badly as Eastern Samar (Boy Abunda, the most famous Samareño, came from that province’s Borongan City).

I did my bit in helping the victims in my own little way, especially the kids, and I’m happy reading a report by Samar-based journalist Eladio D. Perfecto that Northern Samar Gov. Jose Lao Ong Jr. (my classmate at the Laoang Chinese School in nineteen-forgotten) has been on the road helping the typhoon victims.

Excerpts from Perfecto’s report:

Gov. Ong distributed relief goods in the towns of Mondragon, San Roque, Catubig and Las Navas in Northern Samar and personally inspected also the extent of the damage on major infrastructure facilities like roads and bridges, and the power lines of the Northern Samar Electric Cooperative.   

Gov. Ong convened his PDRRMC (Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council) and suggested that a “help desk” center be  put up in Tacloban City, one of the hardest hit cities in Eastern Visayas, to locate, rescue and transport back fellow Nortehanons who were trapped there. The operation was dubbed as “Operation Bulig” (Oplan Help). In five days, more than 875 Nortehanons were ferried to Catarman, Northern Samar. The victims were also given free food, free medical checkup, free call, and free cellphone charging.

Gov. Ong sent Northern Samar Vice Gov. Gary Lavin to Tacloban to supervise the rescue operation.

Aside from the rescue efforts made by the provincial government, Ong has also allocated 50 sacks of rice and 50 boxes of sardines to provinces of Leyte and Western Samar. In Leyte, the 50 sacks of rice was received by Gov. Leopoldo “Petic” Petilla while in the province of Samar the goods was received by Gov. Sharee Anne Tan.

Ong said he was also preparing another round of relief operations to the province of Eastern Samar particularly in the towns of Lawaan, Hernani, Giporlos and Balangiga, again, he instructed Vice Gov. Gary to lead the operations.    

The STAR sources said that Gov. Ong’s family and friends shelled out P2M as donation in addition to the P3.4M raised by the provincial government.