CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, (PNA) — Sexagenarian Jose Cajucom still could not grasp himself in recalling what he witnessed in the rescue of hundreds of students and teachers from the rubbles of Christian Colleges of the Philippines (CCP) that collapsed on a powerful quake that killed hundreds in this city and other parts of Northern Luzon over 23 years ago.
“As if I experienced the disaster,” Cajucom of Gen. Tinio Street., just across the fallen four-storey building said, adding he could not even brave look into the bodies being brought out of the rubbles.
“I am afraid of the dead, I cannot really take it,” he said.
But, having experienced the jolts himself, he could not help but get close to the rescue operation being conducted by local personnel, soldiers, and the Gordon-led team.
CCP is situated between Gen. Tinio and Burgos streets, in the business district here.
Juanita Fajardo, 48, resident of Barangay Aduas this city, shared Cajucom’s description of the catastrophe.
“I thought it was already the end of the world,” she said narrating how he worried about the lives of her three kids who were all minors then.
The quake happened at about 3 p.m. of July 16, 1990.
The two said the news of the Intensity 7.2 quake in Cebu and Bohol Tuesday shook their brains.
But while Cajucom and Fajardo could heal the wounds by themselves, the story is different to people who had to fight for their lives while trapped in the rubbles, an expert said.
A female student survivor from Barangay Bagong Sikat here admitted that memory of a day inside the rubbles haunt her every time she feels a slight tremor.
She would recall how she and her companions had to drink every drop of water to survive and shout in vain once they heard any sound or movement from the outside.
She was, according to expert, lucky though to have overcome the trauma in a certain degree.
Dr. Manuel Guerrero, an expert in critical incidence stress debriefing (CISD), psychological rehabilitation is a must for victims of an earthquake.
“The trauma the earthquake had brought to the victims will forever remain in their consciousness,” Guerrero, who supervised the rehabilitation of hundreds of survivors from CCP said.
He was then vice president of Araullo University, also of this city, which accommodated some victims.
“If we are looking at them, they are normal physically but deep inside the psychological injury will always be there,” Guerrero said adding that “unless the victims undergo what we call CISD the victims may suffer from severe anxiety and depression.”
“They will always be in fear, normal activities earlier they undergo will not be as efficient arising from the traumatic experience,” he added.
These traumatic experience, Guerrero said, “may trigger behavioral problems, poor interactions, and disturbed thinking.”
He noted that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has a pool of CISD axperts to attend to quake victims.