Voyage of the missing: One family's horrific tale

After the storm comes the reckoning. This horrific tale is one of the more damning to emerge from the wreckage of Typhoon Ondoy. On September 26, as Metro Manila was drowning in the great flood, a woman, her 69-year-old mother, and one house maid began a harrowing 12-hour trek from Makati to Sta. Mesa. Miraculously, they made it to the gate of their subdivision. But only two actually made it home. The third eventually turned up in Hagonoy, Bulacan, dragged a shocking distance of 35-40 kilometers through the San Juan River, the Pasig River, then out to Manila Bay—even after she had reached the “safety" of her neighborhood gate.

The bizarre incident at the creekside guard house of Sta. Mesa Gardenville is chilling proof of the ferocity of the flood waters that day. Long after the waters cleared, however, a different kind of torment engulfed those who searched for the missing. Surviving Makati to Sta. Mesa On the morning of September 26, 48-year-old Corina Fabian and her 69-year-old mother Leonora were inseparable as usual on Singian Street near Makati Avenue, where they both worked Mondays to Saturdays in the same building. Corina was the marketing manager of Xynet Communications, a call center training school. Leonora was the building administrator. Their house maid Milen was with them to help Leonora, who had breast cancer surgery a few months ago. At 12 noon, flood waters in Makati were knee-deep and there were no more taxis. Corina, who always takes charge in a crisis, decided they would walk home. They waded to the Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge, hanging on to grill fences whenever strong currents struck. When they reached the market in Kalentong, gargantuan rats and pig entrails were floating in the water. Leonora and Milen were unworried, because Corina was making sure they passed only through shallow water. They were so relaxed they giggled whenever someone slipped, and fussed over keeping Leonora’s passport dry because she was set to go to New York. By 6:30 pm, they were on Shaw Boulevard. Hungry and exhausted, Leonora and Milen ducked inside Savory Restaurant. Corina stayed out on the street because she wanted to see where people were going. If they were turning back, that meant the waters were too high. She really wanted the three of them to get home. Mysterious surge Past midnight, they reached Pure Gold supermarket in Sta. Mesa. Leonora and Milen were thrilled because they were so close to home. Corina surprisingly became reluctant to go further. Leonora said she was tired and wanted to shower and sleep. Corina gave in, good-humoredly telling Milen she didn’t have to cook the next day and could spend the whole day sleeping. Around 1:00 am, the three reached the SM Centerpoint car park, which they needed to cross to get to the lone gate of Sta. Mesa Gardenville. The area was completely dark and deserted. The Gardenville guards had abandoned their posts. Neither Corina nor Leonora could swim very well, but the water was calm and only waist-deep. A piece of cake compared to what they’d been through in Makati, Mandaluyong, and San Juan. Hugging the wall of the parking building, they inched their way toward the gate. Corina held on to her mother so Leonora would not lose her balance. Suddenly, a strong surge of water pushed them toward the creek behind the guard house. Corina slipped and lost her grip on her mother. “She shouted, ‘Mama! Mama!’" says Leonora. “I’ll never forget it. Her voice was so full of fear." Corina frantically reached out, tearing off her mother’s jacket before she vanished into the creek. Leonora was also being swept away, but was able to grab onto a post in the guard house at the last minute. Leonora and Milen screamed for help in the darkness. But Corina was gone. Missing, presumed dead The search for Corina began and so did the family’s descent into bureaucratic hell. Her older sister Carol, who is based in Cabanatuan, arrived in Manila on September 27, 1:30 pm, exactly 12 hours after Corina disappeared. She looked for the Gardenville building administrator to see if village security could help, but couldn’t talk to anyone. “It was the guard of SM Centerpoint who took us to the police station to file a blotter report." That was all the police could do. At the barangay hall, everyone was too busy with the floods to bother looking for one missing person. The following morning, September 28, Carol saw some Coast Guard personnel parked at SM Centerpoint. Thinking they had come in response to her calls, she ran to them. But they said they were on their way to Cainta, and were only there to pick up some companions. “I knelt before them and cried and begged them to take their boat around the creek just once to see if my sister was there. But they said there was nothing they could do." Desperate, she went to Camp Crame that night thinking the NDCC (National Disaster Coordinating Council) was there. A guard referred her to a colonel who—amazingly—sent two men to get details. Still, there was no rescue team available for searching the creek. By September 30, the family was getting premonitions that Corina might be dead. A relative who went to Camp Aguinaldo was told there were bodies recovered in San Juan and Mandaluyong. When Carol asked to see the bodies, she was passed on to the Department of Health (DOH). DOH told her to go to the city halls of San Juan and Mandaluyong. She went to both, but each time was told they didn’t know what dead bodies she was talking about. Hope from a psychic Family members went through corpses in hospitals and morgues. Not finding Corina among the dead gave Carol hope she was still alive. She printed leaflets and posted them on jeepneys. Word about Corina was spread all over the internet. Her name was the ominous 13th entry on the Missing Persons Database of GMANews.TV: single, 48-years-old, Mickey Mouse tattoo (“She got that when she was an OFW in Korea," says Carol), wearing San Juan de Letran jacket. On the afternoon of October 2, the 6th day of Corina’s disappearance, the helpful colonel from Crame was finally able to send a rescue team to search the creek. Carol rode with them all the way to the Pasig River near Malacañang, but there was no sign of Corina. Back at the house in Gardenville, her mother Leonora was told a psychic said Corina was still alive, but gravely injured. Leonora’s spirits were uplifted. Hours later, however, the family was speeding towards Hagonoy, Bulacan. Police had notified the family that fishermen had found a dead body. It was wearing a Letran jacket. Almost buried The body was Corina. In death, the woman who capably led her mother and house maid home through 12 hours of apocalyptic flood was frozen in a strange position, like she was clinging to something when she took her last breath. The corpse had actually been found on September 30, and details were published in a national newspaper. But no one imagined it could be the missing woman from Sta. Mesa, because no one thought the flood waters could carry anyone that far. The Mickey Mouse tattoo on the shoulder was indistinguishable because the body had badly decomposed. It had no more hair. The Hagonoy police were about to bury the rotting corpse when the family decided to take a look. Corina was cremated on Monday, October 5, 2009, nine days after she disappeared. Up to fate In the age of Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook, searching for missing persons and unidentified corpses in the Philippines is still a nearly stone-age process. The Fabian family filed a missing persons report at the Manila Police District, while the fishermen who found Corina’s corpse tied it to a tree then called the Hagonoy police to come and retrieve it. Then, it was up to Fate to decide if anyone between Manila and Bulacan would put two and two together before bacteria demanded it was time for dust to return to dust. Once an unidentified body is burned or buried, a family’s search will never end. In the call center capital of the world, hamburgers can be ordered online and hours-long squabbles can be waged on the phone with customer service reps. But there is no one central hotline or web-based clearinghouse for authorities and the public to liaise with each other in managing matters of life and death. There are more storms on the way, but who has the time to work on long-term solutions? Everyone is busy repacking noodles. - GMANews.TV POSTSCRIPT: Despite their ordeal, the Fabian family wishes to thank Col. Ochoa, Col. De Guzman, and Col. Salgado of the Philippine National Police, P.O.3 Salamat of the Hagonoy Police, and most of all, the security and management of SM Centerpoint, whose immediate response to their cry for help is an example that should be emulated by all those who did too little too late.