I was at the Department of Budget and Management beside Ayala Bridge when the earth shook.  The next 45 seconds was enough time to run downstairs and out, where the pavement still heaved.  That was twenty years ago, Monday July 16, 1990 at 4:26 p.m.

One assumes that accidents happen to others and it was hours, from sketchy radio reports, before I realized that my wife Alice was in danger.  She had left for earthquake-devastated Baguio two days before to attend a conference that USAID had organized for its NGO network.  Just before dawn, the US Embassy confirmed that she was still unlocated.

Roads to Baguio were impassable and Loakan airport was closed, but San Miguel’s Andres Soriano III kindly had a small plane fly me that afternoon to the nearest open airport at San Fernando, La Union.  A family friend, Cres Fernandez, put me up for the night and early the following morning (Wednesday), a US Navy helicopter gave me a ride and set me down at the Baguio Country Club.  A Club employee offered to drive me to Nevada Hotel.  Its first three floors had collapsed and the fourth was practically at ground level.  The conference was underway on the second floor when the earthquake struck.

Sonia Roco (wife of Senator Raul Roco) and her sister-in-law Peachy (wife of Cho Roco, who later became Congressman) were also at the conference.  Sonia had walked out unscathed but dozens of her fellow conferees had not.  Cho and I waited together in the drizzle, watching the occasional survivor helped out.  Cho’s radio phone linked me to home where relatives and friends had gathered. 

Butchie Ayuyao, ever the teacher, kept my young children’s spirits up.

President Corazon Aquino arrived and one of her party, Madeleine Lim, noticed me.  She returned that evening with her friend Mila Genuino and in an unforgettable act of kindness, both stood by me for much of that cold and rainy night.

It was past midnight when I sought shelter at a damaged and deserted building nearby, pulled some chairs together and lay down.  About three a.m., men from Philex Mining came searching for me to report that they may have found my wife.  They led me through a maze — all of us bent over, groping past shattered posts, collapsed walls, fallen ceilings, smashed furniture, mine timbers holding up cracked beams — and pointed through a hole that they had broken through the concrete of the floor above.  Neither did Cho’s wife make it.

Meanwhile, other friends discovered I was there.  Nina Yuson drove up and invited me to her sister Che Che Lazaro’s place for a much needed shower.  Marsh and Hiroko Thomson looked for me, too, and took me for a hot meal and then bed at the Camp John Hay cottage where they were staying that week. 

The following morning, Friday, a US military helicopter took survivors, bereaved and remains to Clark Air Base.  My children soon arrived and together we brought their mother back home.

Comments are cordially invited, addressed to walalang@mb.com.ph.