What are your memories of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption?

C.B. Fundales, Bulacan: I remember driving in zero visibility. Ash-covered trees, a rain of mud and floods that came with dust in the wind were my memories of the Pinatubo eruption.

Alexander Raquepo, Ilocos Sur: The scenario then was a la doomsday. I was there in Zambales a week after the eruption, to help in the rehabilitation efforts in San Marcelino, and everything then was covered by either lahar or ash.

Ashfall everywhere

Joe Nacilla, Las Piñas City: It was the birthday of my wife when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991. We were busy preparing for the scheduled dinner party. We had just begun preparations when darkness came, making us think it was already 6 pm, causing us great worry. I turned on the TV to check out the PBA game. Only then did we find that it was only around 11 am. The party started on time. The men were at the open terrace with wine and pulutan, kilawin, roasted pig, and chicken, among others. By almost 9 pm, we were wondering why all the parked cars were now painted white? We found out that all the cars were covered with ashfall. When we went back to our table, all the pulutan was also covered with ashfall. We had to finish the party early. Twenty years have passed and I still have my ashfall collection, taken from the rooftop of my car.

Raymar Gurrea, Bacolod City: The most memorable moment was when Mt. Pinatubo spewed tons of ash in its first salvo of eruption.

June Deoferio, Cavite: I was in Taguig City during the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, when the day became dark with almost zero visibility because of ashfall.

Engr. Eduardo Santos, Metro Manila: There was so much ash on top of leaves of every plant back then. It was almost like Christmas decor at night.

Renato Taylan, Ilocos Norte: My memory of Mt. Pinatubo is the photo of a cloud of dust mushrooming in a grayish horizon.

Ed Santos, Metro Manila: I can now only recall cleaning the ash every morning on top of every utensil left outside our house that night.

Lydia Reyes, Bataan: I could hardly forget that early morning when we woke up and could see only the eyeballs of my two-year-old son. We were all full of ash from head to toe.

Louie Vallo, Pangasinan: I was 17 then and I believe it was a Saturday. My friends and I just finished playing basketball (the memory of the 1990 earthquake not too far behind), when suddenly I noticed that the sky somewhat darkened and then I saw thick fumes of cloud almost covering the sky. Then followed ashfall. I don’t know where it came from until I heard in the news that Pinatubo erupted after 600 years of being dormant.

Skin and respiratory problems

Ruben Viray, Antipolo City: Volcanic ash (lahar) engulfed almost the entire Metro Manila and nearby cities a few days after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. In Marikina, roofs, cars, and anything exposed to sunlight were not spared. No one knew when this ashfall would ever stop and it gave rise to various skin diseases. We were also at risk from the air we breathed, so we had our house fully screened. It was a scary atmosphere that lasted for weeks.

A happy memory

Bong Nebrija, Quezon City: I would say that the Mt. Pinatubo eruption was the closest Manila ever was to having snowfall, but instead of snow, we experienced volcanic ash. I remember coming that night from my date with my ex-girlfriend, now my wife, when I felt something in my hair. It had ash, as in large amounts of ash, turning my hair literally gray. The next day, I picked her up at UST after her nursing board exam, and commuted around Manila (which looked like a desert covered with volcanic ash) to what we call our “Ash Day Date”. We celebrate that day every year, up to now, as it happens to be our engagement day. To many, the eruption might have been tragic, but for me and my wife, it was the start of a relationship now sealed in marriage for 20 long years.

Earthquake

Nescel Panes, Passi City, Iloilo: Two days after Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption, we had a family gathering for my brother’s birthday. Everybody was busy chatting with relatives while I was upstairs preparing my room. I was sitting on the bed when I felt tremors and shaking in the house. I held on to the bedside until the shaking was gone. It was my first time to experience an earthquake that hit Panay Island as an aftershock of Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption.

Pinatubo is a bad memory

Rose Leobrera, Manila: As long as I see remnants of our house in Bacolor, Pampanga with only the second floor and the attic showing, the bad memories of Pinatubo will forever be etched in my mind. What once was a very beautiful house with a wide garden full of ornamental plants, and an orchard is now old and neglected. It is where I spent my childhood days. Nowadays, the people of Bacolor live elsewhere in different parts, many in resettlement areas, others in nearby provinces, and some abroad, but on some occasions, many still try to visit their roots. The Pinatubo eruption erased our town from the map.

Manuel Abejero, Pangasinan: We had a fruit stall along the national road. The volcanic eruption brought down our business, since we catered mostly to local and foreign tourists.

Louella Brown, Baguio City: The ash from Mt. Pinatubo reached us in Baguio City in 1991. We had to wear face masks. The Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 scared us in Baguio City. We were still recovering from the 1990 earthquake.

Rene Poder, Manila: Mt. Pinatubo is in Botolan, Zambales, and our hometown. Abroad, we felt so sad, helpless, and remembered RM, J. Paredes on that tragic plane with that name.

Thankful we survived

Danilo Rogayan Jr., Zambales: I was a Pinatubo baby. Our family was one of the immediate victims of the tragic Mt. Pinatubo eruption here in Zambales. Like everybody else, my parents never expected that the Pinatubo, after a 600-year slumber, would erupt. They thought then that it was the end of the world. Days turned into nights as ash covered the sky. Our family heeded the government’s instruction to evacuate as many of our kababayans were rushing to escape the rage of the eruption. Nothing was left of our property, except the roof of our house. Still, my parents said, our family was fortunate to have survived nature’s wrath.

Caught unawares

C.B. Manalastas, Manila: I recall the unusual and different kind of dimness in the atmosphere and surroundings, then, all of a sudden, came the falling bits of fine dust. We could not tell where it was coming from, since we were not tuned in to the radio or TV then.

An epic disaster

William Gonzaga, Marikina City: We were living then in Cubao, Quezon City. When I woke up in the morning of that fateful day, I was dumbfounded to see not rain showers, but ash, falling from the sky. Later on, I learned from the news that Mt. Pinatubo volcano erupted, which wrought terrible destruction to surrounding areas.

Miguelito Herrera, Cabanatuan City: The ashfall did reach our city, but very minimal, compared to what the people of Pampanga and Zambales suffered. It was truly a disaster of epic proportions.

Lucas Madamba, Laguna: Mount Pinatubo is an active strata volcano located in the Island of Luzon, at the intersection of the borders of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga. It is located in the Tri-Cabusilan Mountain Range, separating the west coast of Luzon from the central plains, and is 42 km (26 miles) west of the dominant and more prominent Mount Arayat. The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was a massacre, which wrecked properties and caused damage to the environment.

Armando Tavera, Las Piñas City: Its lahar deposit was enough to wipe out several towns of Pampanga. Mt. Pinatubo is stronger than other active volcanoes combined.

Carmela Ramento, Cagayan de Oro City: “Oh my God!” Words I uttered in awe and in helpless desperation upon seeing on TV senseless death and destruction wrought by the erupting volcano.

Germi Sison, Cabanatuan City: It was a Saturday and I was at the office till 3 in the afternoon. When I got out of the building, it was almost dark. People on the street were covering their heads with handkerchieves. When I got to the street, I felt wet sand hitting me. The following days, we watched over television the devastating effect of lahar, burying some Zambales and Pampanga towns, with many people with their livestock and homes being carried away by lahar flood. Soon, many natives (Aetas) were lining up city streets, begging for food and shelter.

Read about it in the papers

Dennis Montealto, Mandaluyong City: We only got information and updates from the papers. Did it have any direct effect on our locality? No, as we were far away from the eruption.

Nature’s fury

Deo Durante, Camarines Sur: I couldn’t imagine that a small volcano like Mt. Pinatubo could cause such huge damage as I had seen. The road going up to Baguio City revealed the reality of a grim catastrophe. Fresh ash was scattered as far as the eye could see. It was really nature’s fury unleashed.

Jose Fabello Jr., Cagayan de Oro City: Memories past became too unreal, as nature’s wrath was so incomprehensible. The volcano’s ire was too grandiose for comfort. Nothing, simply nothing, could be done to stop it.

Felix Ramento, USA: The day I saw how Mt. Pinatubo turned the cities, towns, and countless villages of Tarlac and Pampanga into virtual ghost towns, it was Mother Nature’s might that came to mind.

Ruel Bautista, Laguna: It’s a grim reminder of how helpless we are against the forces of nature.

Proof of Pinoys’ resilience

Rodolfo Talledo, Angeles City: Instead of recalling all the bitterness, pain, fear, angst and hopelessness, I console myself with the thought of how human beings endured and fought off the wrath of nature, then with grim determination, rose from the ashes a defining moment of the Pinoys’ resilience and bayanihan.

Monuments of corruption

Robert Young Jr., San Juan: It has been 20 years since Mount Pinatubo erupted. Time sure flies. Everyone woke up one morning surprised to see everything covered by fine white sand, which was difficult to wash off. For a time, there was panic-buying in the supermarkets. Then, news of the devastation trickled in through the media. The eruption was so extensive that the dust from Pinatubo caused the world temperature to drop. Thousands perished, and the government continues to waste billions on dikes and dredging, despite recommendations from experts to just move the affected residents to another place.

Pedro Alagano Sr., Vigan City: The Mt. Pinatubo eruption is a wrath of nature that left a distinguishing mark dubbed as a “monument of corruption”, through the megadike and lahar quarrying projects.

Accidental beauty

Rico Fabello, Parañaque City: I visited the Pinatubo crater lake last year. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. Both the beauty and power of that innocent-looking volcano won’t deny the fact of an existing God.

People without a home

Rudy Tagimacruz, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon: I can recall that after the eruption, the government hauled hundreds of Mt. Pinatubo victims to a farm settlement at Capodtara, Talakag, Bukidnon.

Praying it doesn’t happen again

Ishmael Calata, Parañaque City: Several memories come to mind: 1. At that time, I was in charge of Unilab’s sales operations in Luzon, and due to that eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, which devastated Pampanga/Tarlac/Zambales, the three provinces that carried a big chunk of our sales volume, our quota achievements for several months were disrupted; 2. My Celica ST, which was in a car shop in San Fernando, Pampanga for body repair, was totally lost when the roof of the shop collapsed under the weight of volcanic ash, which buried it and other cars; 3. It was heartening that our field men, half of whose income was greatly augmented by incentive prizes upon achieving their quotas, were allowed by this benevolent company adjustments of their sales targets, to lift their morale in a dire situation; and 4. But the havoc it caused was a heart-rending sight, with people displaced by the eruption pitching makeshift shelters even on roadsides. Let’s pray that this never happens again.

J.R. Mondonedo Jr., Parañaque City: I’m sure my answer will be the same as everyone else, so I will just say I hope and pray to God it won’t happen again. Like bad memories in the past, you just try to forget it.

Cris Rivera, Rizal: If losing a friend is painful, how much more if it’s a brother or sister, and worse, a parent? I just hope this unfaithful event won’t happen again.

Thought it was the end of the world

Rey Ibalan, Antipolo City: It was horrible. I confessed my sins, thinking it was the end of the world.

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