Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa held its tree-lighting ceremony to coincide with the resort’s 20th anniversary celebration. Good thing traffic from Cebu City to Lapu-Lapu City that afternoon was easy.
Disasters are nothing new to Filipinos, and these past months have witnessed the Filipino spirit overcoming disaster after disaster.
It almost feels as if the country’s faith is being tested, with a supertyphoon immediately following a super earthquake, and the casualty statistics hitting not only hundreds but the tens of thousands.
When Libera arrived in Cebu for a one-night concert at the Chapel of San Pedro Calungsod in SM Seaside Complex, South Road Properties, the first order of the day was a meet and greet at SM City Cebu. It was well-attended.
Although the destruction of Bohol and Cebu churches is devastating, even more disastrous is the loss of lives and livelihood that takes precedence over the loss of heritage in the massive post-earthquake reconstruction effort.
Some heritage churches in Cebu and Bohol are memorable because of the concerts that took place in them.
If worse comes to worst, the Church of San Pedro Apostol in Loboc, Bohol, heavily damaged by last Tuesday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake, can no longer be rebuilt and rehabilitated and will be left as it is, the ruins of a once-magnificent structure whose more than a quarter-of-a-century of existence has been cut short by the wrath of nature.
When Libera, the chart-topping boys’ choir from London, holds its third Philippine concert next week, it will perform in Cebu, which is struggling to rise from the shock of a powerful earthquake that killed and maimed scores of people, and also toppled the belfry of the centuries-old shrine of Santo Niño, the biggest Catholic devotion in the Philippines.
In a matter of minutes, Bohol and Cebu churches collapsed into piles of rubble.
It doesn’t matter which part of the country (or even the world) you’re in—there are ways to help. Schools, government agencies and nonprofit organizations are all collecting relief for the victims of the earthquake that hit Bohol, Cebu and other parts of Visayas. Here are some.
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