Forgotten victims
By Emlyn Jones
Mount Pinatubo is sacred to the Aeta people; they must live within sight of it. The eruption forced them to leave their homes and fields.
Early this century, the Aeta were still forest dwellers. When their ancestral lands were used for the construction of Clark air base, they moved to higher land, much of which had already been denuded and been taken over by cogon grass.
Last February I stayed in some of their villages and also at the Franciscan Missioners of Mary convent at Poonbato, a small town where Lakas, an Aeta society, had its headquarters.
The FMM are involved in the literacy program for tribal people which was designed by Paulo Frere. The Aeta were one of the first tribes to benefit. Now they not only educate their own children but help in the education of other tribals.
The last Aeta village I stayed in had not long been inhabited. It was on a high plateau. Most of the area was cultivated, with camote (a sweet potato), beans and other vegetables. Below the plateau was a river flat where they hoped to plant rice. Each family had a hut thatched with cogon grass. They had made a basketball court and were busy building a meeting-house.
Several months after the eruption, I stopped at Manila and went to the FMM convent there, hoping to get news of my friends. While I was there, Sister Minsgay arrived from the disaster area.
According to Sister Minsgay, Pinatubo had been threatening to erupt since April. In May the Aetas started to evacuate. Two hundred families arrived in Poonbato, where they crowded into schools, Lakas headquarters and improvised huts. They were short of both food and water.
On June 5 the eruptions started. Poonbato was said to be in the danger zone. People were moved 20 km away. Here supplies reached them, but they had to move again. Altogether they were evacuated nine times.
On June 14 they were at Iba, in sight of the major eruption. They were the only people to see this, as everyone else had left. At the same time, Typhoon Diding was raging. "Fortunately for us", said Sister, "it blew away the ash, otherwise we should have been buried alive".
The Aeta are living in crowded and unhygienic conditions, packed into schools or tents which are boiling hot in dry weather and leak when it rains. Twenty-three of their children have died.
The problems of the Aeta are only a small part of the disaster created by Pinatubo. Four provinces — Zambales, Pampanga, Tarlac and Bataan — are affected. Thousands have been evacuated. US forces left Clark air field leaving munitions stored in earth-covered igloos. They will neither confirm nor deny that nuclear materials were left there. Six thousand vehicles evacuated US personnel, many of them in big empty cars, refusing to help Filipino refugees carrying all their belongings, but zooming past, covering them with dust.
There are continuing reports of lowland villages being buried in lahar, or hot mud. Lahar and floods have forced the exodus of thousands of people in low-lying areas.
There is no room for most of the refugees in the overcrowded evacuation centres. There is insufficient water, and no efficient waste disposal. The majority of deaths are due to these conditions.
A disaster of this magnitude cannot be resolved without international aid. But the Aeta and others like them appear to be forgotten.