Yolanda devastation breaks heart of Fil-Canadian troops

When the scenes of massive deaths and devastation were flashed on TV screens worldwide after Typhoon Yolanda slammed into the Visayas region and some parts of southern Luzon on Nov. 8, Canadian Army Maj. Jay Manimtim and Canadian Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer Joseph Abando quietly grieved from half the world away.

Both were born in the Philippines.

When Canada assembled a 300-strong team to rush to the Visayas, Manimtim and Abando said it was a mission they could not refuse. The horrific deaths and destruction broke their heart.

"I just needed to come," the 34-year-old Manimtim said.

"The country that adopted me was able to give me the opportunity to come here to help," said Manimtim, who just ended a military assignment in the United Kingdom when he was deployed to central Panay Island along with Abando and 13 other Filipino-Canadian soldiers.

Abando, 52, was getting ready for a naval assignment on board Canada's HMCS Fredericton but had to give it up so he could help in relief work in the Philippines.

"They were willing to allow me to miss some time at sea so I can come home to my birth home to assist Filipinos," he said, calling the opportunity to help Filipino compatriots "a privilege."

Abando and Manimtim were among 15 Canadian military personnel of Filipino descent who were handpicked for the 40-day mission so the contingent would be able to communicate and relate better with the locals.

With relief aid, supplies, communications equipment and tents, they set out to the land of their birth. They were overwhelmed by the scale of destruction that greeted them in Panay.

"I saw people living in shelters, some of them with no tarps, no blankets," Abando said.

"I was invited in a home and they were just laying on leaves and there were holes in the roofs."

Some residents, he said, have endured days without eating or drinking water. Many were in shock after losing loved ones.

"You feel touched with what's going on with Filipinos. It was difficult, but we did our best to help," Abando said.

Abando, who was the last member of the Canadian team to be pulled out from Panay when Canada wrapped up its mission this week, also said the overall experience was "very touching."

"Walking through the streets in the barangays, I had a little girl come up to me, very scantily clothed and she grabbed my hand and she gave me the 'mano' and I thought that was awesome," he said, referring to a traditional Filipino gesture of putting an elder person's hand on the forehead as a sign of respect.

Days after Yolanda struck, Canada was among the first countries to respond to the Philippines' international appeals for help. It sent financial aid and deployed helicopters with food, medicine and other relief goods.

Yolanda, internationally called Haiyan, was one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded to hit land with fury and force Filipinos had never seen before.

Tsunami-like storm surges swept away and damaged more than a million houses and left more than 6,000 people dead.

Decomposing human bodies continue to be retrieved.

More than 27,000 were injured and 1,700 others remain missing.

The United Nations said the typhoon has affected at least 14 million people and that it will take several years before the devastated areas could fully recover.

Canadian aid amounted to at least $20 million and the country pledged more assistance for the long haul until battered communities recover.

"We will continue to be a major player in the humanitarian development across the hardest-hit areas," Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder said.

"We are very cognizant of your needs and our government has been very clear that we will continue to support," he added.

Canada focused its assistance on Panay Island, where thousands have been affected. It deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) of diplomats and military personnel, including Manimtim and Abando.

While in Panay, the Canadian DART helped coordinate humanitarian assistance to ensure that all areas, particularly remote towns, receive aid.

Manimtim migrated to Canada with his family when he was 16 but remains fluent in Filipino.

Abando admitted that he can barely speak the local language because he moved to Canada at the young age of 4, but said he could very well understand Tagalog, which is widely spoken in the Philippines.

The decision to include Filipino-Canadians in the team, they said, was a crucial advantage because that helped facilitate the distribution of aid more efficiently in the most urgent moments of the crisis.

"They saw Canadians and they saw this guy who looks like them in this uniform and they totally gravitated toward us and toward me," Manimtim said. "I was able to communicate to them and relate to them."

Abando and Manitim said their trip was bittersweet. They have always cherished traveling back home after resettling years ago in Canada. But the scenes of agony and despair were heart-rending and their grief was eased after they set foot again in the Philippines and help salve the sufferings of so many. — LBG, GMA News