Mom still hopeful of finding 3 kids lost in flood after almost a month

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Lucina Waluhan’s only wish when she celebrated her 32nd birthday on Thursday was to see her three children again.

Nearly a month since up to 30 feet of rampaging water inundated the city on Dec. 17, Lucina said she had not lost hope of seeing them one day.

Mary, 6; Ian, 4; and Joshua, 2 years old, were among hundreds of people still missing from the devastating flood that had killed some 700 people.

When the flood struck, Lucina said her husband, Felix, had wrapped Mary Joy with a jacket and tied her on his back.

She said she took their two other children with her as they drifted down the river. “I lost them (Ian and Joshua) under the bridge,” she recounted.

Lucina was later rescued in Camiguin Island while Felix was swept and rescued in Iligan City.

As tears rolled down her cheek, Lucina said it was important for her to see her children again, even if they died in the flood.

“I wanted to see them even if they are gone, that way at least, I know where they are,” she said.

Felix refused to talk about his children anymore.

But Lucina said her husband did not tire looking for them every day.

She said Felix—armed with photos of their three children—would visit nearby areas, including mortuaries, in search of the children.

Lucina said they also provided the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with their blood samples for DNA extraction.

The NBI’s disaster victim identification process would help identify those who perished in a calamity.

The bodies of those who perished in the Dec. 17 flood here were processed at the hangar of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

“It would take at least two months before the result could be released,” Lucina said.

Lucina said she and her husband had not given up hope of finding the children, or at least one of them, one day.

The couple’s neighbors at the evacuation center here told the Inquirer there are nights when they could hear Lucina crying.

“Felix would stand outside the tent, staring into the night sky as if looking for answers for the questions he cannot fathom,” one of them said.

“The hardest thing to do is to give up hope knowing that we have not seen any body and they had not appeared in our dreams, somehow, we know that they are in good hands, but we need to see them so we can rest too,” Lucina said.

By Bobby Lagsa
Inquirer Mindanao
10:56 pm | Friday, January 13th, 2012

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