It was 6 a.m. in Dubai when Lutgardo “Gardy” Labad first heard the worrying news. He was up early to prepare for a drama workshop he was conducting for the OFW community there. A cousin of his texted that a strong earthquake had struck Bohol, and that the floor in their ancestral house had cracked.
Everywhere we went, in Tagbilaran, Dauis, Loay and Loboc in Bohol, we would espy families, neighbors and communities taking part in the Flores de Mayo. At the Loboc Church on a Saturday afternoon, we saw schoolchildren all dressed in white, singing Marian hymns.
