The Ground Shook
Vergara said they started noticing three helicopters hovering above them at around 9 in the morning on April 11. A series of explosions rip through the area 30 minutes later; it went in the next two hours.
“It felt like the whole ground was shaking,” Antonia Ayko, a resident whose house is in Purok 7, recalled.
The Ground Shook Residents of Manay recount their ordeal. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
By the time Ayko gathered all of her five children, many of her neighbors had already started running about, frantic and panicking, with their belongings.
Officials said an estimated 5,000 residents fled their homes and sought temporary shelter at the Panabo Central Elementary along the highway at the city proper. Among those heavily hit were Puroks 1, 6 and 2.
Later, the military said that the bombed areas were uninhabited. Vergara and other officials belied this. Aside from the houses, there are plantations and individual farms in these areas, he told davaotoday.com. Many residents of Manay had gone to work on these farms the day the shelling took place.
The house of Petronilla Ayko, which is located near the river, was one of those badly damaged. There were even splinters stuck underneath the bed of the Ayko house, according to a neighbor, Josephine Rebante.
Davaotoday.com was not able to inspect the house because, according to village officials, it had been cordoned off and declared off-limits by the military.
Cayteno, the barangay captain, also said a child of the Aykos was brought to the hospital because his ears bled as they were fleeing
He lamented that while no one was killed among the villagers, many suffered deep trauma. Councilor Ron Alfarero said one resident panicked at the evacuation site upon hearing the mere sound of a revving motorcycle.
A body of a resident lying in state had to be buried in haste due to the attacks.
Some growers of nearby banana plantations have also complained that the aerial attacks destroyed some of their crops. Stanfilco and Marsman are the banana plantations in the area.
