TUESDAY MAKATI BUS BOMBING: SHATTERED DREAMS, DEATH TOLL NOW 5
[PHOTO - Wilson Ausena (left) lost his daughter Kristel while Aile Reyes lost her son Johanson in Tuesday's bus blast. JONJON VICENCIO]
MANILA, JANUARY 27, 2011 (STAR) By Perseus Echeminada - Iris Tiniola, a 22-year-old call center agent, was on her way to buy a new pair of eyeglasses to replace her broken ones when she rode the Newman Goldliner bus that was bombed last Tuesday afternoon along EDSA in Makati City. The blast killed Iris and four others.
"My cousin was on the way to pick up her brand new eyeglasses when the accident took place," Floridel Pesito, Tiniola's cousin, told The STAR at St. Peter's Memorial Homes in Quezon City where the remains of Iris lie in state.
Tiniola was the fifth fatality of the bombing. She was brought to Ospital ng Makati but later transferred to the Makati Medical Center where she died.
The victim's uncle Nito Tiniola identified her remains at the Makati Medical Center. The victim suffered head injuries and was already in a coma when brought to the hospital.
Pesito said the last time she was with her cousin was last Sunday when they went to an optometrist in San Andres Bukid to replace her damaged eyeglasses that the victim was scheduled to pick up last Tuesday afternoon.
Tiniola even treated her cousin to a snack at a fast food outlet where she expressed her desire to work abroad so that she could support her brother's studies and also help her grandparents in Taganaan town, Surigao del Norte.
The victim has two sisters and a brother; she is the eldest in the family.
After their snack the cousins parted ways as Tiniola was on her way to work.
At about 3 p.m. Tuesday Pesito received a text message from an unnamed sender that informed her that a passenger bus had exploded along EDSA.
The text message read: "Mag-ingat ka sa Makati may bus na sumabog (be careful, a bus exploded in Makati)."
Pesito said she began to panic and started searching for her missing cousin. She went to several hospitals in Makati but failed to locate Tiniola.
She gave up searching until she was informed at about 8 p.m. that her cousin was among the victims and was confined at a hospital in Makati.
Pesito said her cousin and best friend was a lively and jolly person who dreamed of working abroad to help her family.
"That was her dream and with her gone, it will remain a dream," she said.
GMA 7 news program "24 Oras" reported that among the five fatalities were aspiring chef Johanson Reyes, who recently graduated from a Culinary Arts school, and his girlfriend Kristel Ausena, who were both on their way to apply for their first jobs when they rode the Newman Goldliner bus.
Reyes' mother Aile said all the dreams of her son were shattered by the bombing.
But two days after the bombing the Reyes family has not been allowed to get their son's body, which is currently at the morgue of the Rizal Funeral Homes in Pasay City.
She said the government has not yet provided financial support to buy a casket for her dead son.
"I wanted to embrace my son so much and close his eyes, which were left open when he died. But I cannot even do it. I already lost my son in such a senseless way and yet I am being constricted from providing him a decent wake," Aile said.
The House of Representatives joined the rest of the nation yesterday in condemning the bus bombing.
"We abhor and condemn this incident in the strongest terms as it is not only an affront to the slowly stabilizing peace and order situation in our country, but more importantly, it is an affront to the sacrosanct value of human life," Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said in a statement he read before his colleagues.
"The perpetrators must be held legally accountable and they must not be allowed to erode the newfound optimism of people and investors in our country," he said.
"Rest assured that we in the House of Representatives will pass sound legislation in strengthening the country's security situation in response to the elements that continue to disturb Filipino lives," he said.
Belmonte urged the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation "to swiftly finish investigating this isolated but senseless act of violence in the name of those who were killed and injured and their respective families."
On behalf of the House, he also extended his deepest sympathies to the victims and their families.
DSWD assists victims
Secretary Corazon Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development said the DSWD would assist the victims of the bus bombing.
She said the government would shoulder the funeral and burial expenses of the five people who died in the bombing.
"As of this moment we are providing the victims their immediate needs such as medical assistance," Soliman said.
Soliman said the survivors would also get critical stress debriefing.
"The President directed us to determine who among the victims were breadwinners and to provide temporary assistance to their dependents who are currently studying," Soliman said.
She said the DSWD would look for sponsors and scholarships so that the dependents can continue their education.
The agency would also provide livelihood assistance to poor victims.
"We are currently assessing the kind of assistance we will provide the victims because they belong to different income brackets," Soliman said.
An improvised explosive device was detonated inside a Newman Goldliner bus at the northbound lane of the EDSA around 2 p.m. last Tuesday.
The death toll from the bus blast rose to five early Wednesday, after one of the victims succumbed to her wounds at 1:55 a.m. while being treated at the Makati Medical Center.
As of yesterday morning, four victims were being treated at the Ospital ng Makati, while nine were at the St. Luke's Medical Center-Global City in Taguig City.
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is providing psychosocial support for the victims and their relatives.
PRC Social Services yesterday reported that they coordinated with Ospital ng Makati and St. Luke's in providing psychosocial support to the victims as well as relatives of the victims.
PRC earlier deployed emergency response units to the bus explosion site to conduct assessment. The PRC also provided blood to one of the injured.
The PRC is also conducting needs assessment of those injured and the families that lost loved ones.
As of 7:30 p.m., PRC National Blood Center has provided three units of blood for a 20-year-old male victim at Ospital ng Makati.
The provision of blood is made possible through the Blood Samaritan Program of the PRC which can be availed of by indigent residents that need blood.
The PRC Social Services Office will set up welfare desks in the two hospitals to help families and relatives of the victims through psychosocial support and tracing. With Helen Flores, Jess Diaz, Mayen Jaymalin, Aie Balagtas See
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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