November 7, 2014 —- Guiuan Town Plaza, Guiuan Eastern Samar. DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman with Regional Director (RD) Nestor Ramos and Assistant Regional Director (ARDO) Restituto Macuto, after dinner with DSWD officers and staff, went to the town’s plaza and attended the Guiuan Solidarity night, a night to commemorate the 1st year anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda’s first landfall and to pray for the souls that perished the day Yolanda/Haiyan struck this town.

The event started at seven thirty in the evening and lasted until three o’clock in the morning. More than two thousand Guiuananons were in attendance to pray three decades of the holy rosary led by the older women of the town and the prayer for souls led by parish priest, Msgr. Lope Robredillo.
The event, dubbed “An Pagkamarig-on han mga Guiuananon, (The Toughness of Guiuananons) Yolanda Observance, (1st landfall 2 am), was filled with more than twenty cultural presentations of three parts: Festive Life (before Yolanda), The Aftermath, and the Recovery Phase.

A tableau of what happened during the strongest typhoon in history was presented, complete with the giving of relief goods and the coming of foreign friends from around the world. There was not a dry eye in the audience. Everyone was in tears as the story of the super typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan was unfolded and left many dead.
At half past two o’clock in the morning, candles were lighted and the 118 casualties and missing individuals were honoured with a bell chime after each name and a prayer for the soul of the person mentioned.
Secretary Soliman, when asked to deliver a message, happily hailed the Guiuananons for their rising up (after Haiyan) and their continuous development in Guiuan. She lauded the more than 2000 people gathered in the plaza for their showing the world what they did to rise up and build their community by cooperation, collaboration and teamwork. She cited what was said at the beginning of the program: that, after Yolanda, the first thing the Guiuanannons saw was each other, willing to help the other, willing to be one in helping those who were in need.

“The oneness that you have shown to each other and to the offices of the government, with your local government which led you to unity, is one big example for everyone willing to have hope; that Yolanda’s very strong winds with strong rains was one challenge and you took it, you showed your strength that the Guiuananons do not surrender, you face challenges, you rise up to them. Your lives will be more progressive because of your unity”, Soliman said.
She also sent greetings from the national government and told them that their hearts were touched for every step to success those from the Yolanda-affected places make. She also assured the Guiuananons and the rest of those rising up after Yolanda that the national government will be with them until their lives become whole again.
Soliman continued, “I would like to take the opportunity, too, to thank in a very special way, all our partners from the United Nations, who are all very much represented here, as well, as the international NGOs and the local NGOs who have been spending the year here, giving their time, talent and treasure. We cannot thank you enough and we hope the solidarity that you have been showing to the people of Guiuan and the people of Leyte and Samar and your other colleagues in the other Yolanda-affected areas will find comfort, joy and celebration at the developments that will happen. There so much work to be done. Obviously, all of us can see we are not fully recovered; there is much more to be rehabilitated. Building back better; but I think Guiuan has shown that if there is unity there is determination. And one thing that I saw very clearly here, faith in the Lord. Ang inyo pong pananampalataya. Yan ang nagdala sa inyong pagbangon, pag-unlad. At lalong gaganda ang buhay ninyo dito. Mula po sa amin, maraming salamat sa inyong halimbawa. Magandang gabi sa ating lahat.”(Your faith. That will bring you to rise up and develop. And your lives will be more productive because of this. From all of us, thank you for your example. Good evening to all.)

UN resident coordinator Luiza Carvalho was present to celebrate the occasion with the Guiuananons and so were UNICEF Country Representative Lotta Sylwander and Marco Boasso IOM Philippines chief of mission. All three praised the people of Guiuan for their resiliency and thanked them for the chance of serving Guiuan.

Carvalho told the people of Guiuan that they have taught a lot to the foreigners who came, that resilience, unity, and determination “will help us, will put us in the right path and we will overcome whatever the difficulties in front of us.” She also told the Guiuananons that they were very humbled to be in Yolanda-hit places and thanked the many people present, the international agencies national NGOs and international NGOs and for so many people who were the first ones to respond. And their commitment was that whatever happens, they will always be here for the Philippines. Carvalho also thanked Secretary Soliman and Mayor Sheen for receiving them with open arms, as they have always felt very welcome and have always felt part of the Filipino people.

The last part was the Symbolic Gesture of Transition wherein the INGOs, NGOs and the government symbolically gave the members of the LGU a candle in exchange for a golden cowrie, a rare shell which was mostly found in Guiuan. Each representative of the INGO or the government was paired with a member of the LGU, in which case Mayor Christopher Sheen Gonzales was teamed up with DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman. The gesture showed gratitude and friendship between both parties. ##