Perhaps if you visited the barangay (village) of San Juan in Ormoc City early morning of Christmas in the year 2013, you would see the soft sunrise touching the tops of the trees laid bare by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) that devastated many areas of the Visayas region earlier that November. The rural barangay of San Juan is found just at the border of Ormoc, just before its boundary with the municipality of Merida.

On your visit, you might turn left from the Ormoc City-Merida Road, leaving behind the hard concrete road onto rough, dusty streets with rice fields on either side. The scenery is now and used to be a lush green. Back then, after Yolanda, it was predominantly brown, most of the foliage blown away by the typhoon. Beyond the rice fields, you would come across a bridge from which you would see a multitude of damaged houses. Some of the lucky ones had a G.I. sheet or two ripped off of their roofs. Those that weren’t as fortunate were completely destroyed altogether.

Perhaps in the midst of the rubble lit by the early morning sunrise you would find an interesting sight. You might find Girlie Arcillas pushing her partner, Danny Ciesneros, up the streets on a wheelchair. Once they reach level ground, they exchange places. Girlie would carefully help Danny up from the wheelchair. Danny would then push the wheelchair, with Girlie sitting on it for support, exercising his legs, both of which had been broken by a car accident the year before. This would become the pair’s routine for months. Sometimes they would go on like this for three hours, depending on Danny’s strength at the time.Read More »Danny Ciesneros: on his feet again