The
CAGAYANTIMES d e O ro
Your Weekly Lifestyle Newspaper
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Vol. 1 | No.20 | Cagayan de Oro City | December 23-29, 2012
Analou Lapuerta, TS Sendong survivor of Iligan City, is immortalized in the memorial marker in the soon to be built Sendong Memorial Park in Hinaplanon, Iligan City. The sculpture is made by Iligan’s Natioanl Artist Julie Lluch. Photo by Shaun Uy
Second memorial marker, first one in Cagayan de Oro Iligan City – Cynthia Villar, Managing Director of the Villar Foundation, attended the groundbreaking ceremony of a memorial that will be built to honor the memory of those who died and went missing when typhoon Sendong ravaged Iligan on December 17 last year. Villar donates money to the Iligan City government to help build the Sendong Memorial. She was joined in the groundbreaking ceremony at the Serate Property on Hinaplanon Highway by Rep. Vicente Belmonte, Mayor Lawrence Cruz, and other local government officials. “We will build this memorial, not to prolong our sadness for losing our loved ones or our hardships for having lost our homes and livelihood. Rather, we will build this memorial so that we – and the future generations – will always remember those whom we lost and those who risked
their own lives to help others survive,” Villar said in her speech during the ceremony. Sendong was one of the worst natural calamities that ever hit Mindanao and one of the deadliest cyclones to hit the Philippines in the last 12 years. It claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people and hundreds went missing. Nearly 150,000 people were affected and caused P1.3-billion damage to agriculture and property. Villar also emphasized in her speech the urgent need for the people to help in environment protection. “This memorial will also serve to remind us of our important role as stewards of our environment… many lives were lost because of some people’s utter disrespect of the environment,” the former representative of Las Piñas cited. This is the second Sendong Memorial that the Villar Foundation
is building for typhoon Sendong’s victims and their family members. The first one now stands at Golden Haven in Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City. It was recently inaugurated on October 25. To further help the residents of Iligan City, Villar will also donate a coconet decorticating machine and provide technical training to the 40 families. Coconet weaving is among the livelihood enterprises of the Villar Foundation. Coconets, which are cheaper alternative to cement, are weaved using the fiber produced by decorticating machine from waste coconut husks. The coconets that the families will produce will be used as rip raps or slope protection for roads and highways that will be developed in Northern Mindanao. It can provide them with sustainable income,” cited Villar.
Photo by Shaun Uy
Cynthia Villar, Managing Director of the Villar Foundation hands in the check worth 1-Million pesos to the city of Iligan represented by Mayor Lawrence Lluch Cruz and local city and barangay officials. The ceremony is part of Iligan’s 1st year commemoration of the TS Sendong tragedy that struck both Cagayan de Oro and Iligan last year.
Photo by Shaun Uy
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