AT THE OLD AIRPORT. The city government of Davao together with local officials of Barangay Sasa, relatives and survivors offer flowers in a simple ceremony on Saturday afternoon, March 4, 2017 as they commemorate the bombing incident in the old Davao International Airport, 14 years ago that killed 22 persons and injured a score of individuals. (Earl O. Condeza/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – In simple commemoration, the city government and the families of victims and survivors, offered candles and flowers at the bomb explosion site at the old airport here Saturday.
The bombing happened on March 4, 2003 and claimed 22 lives and dozens more wounded.
During the short program, Jefry Tupas, City Information Office head said the incident ”is really saddening but should move on and start a new life”.
“We have this saying that one should let go of the pains we felt,” Tupas said. “We really have to move on from pain for us to forget it [pain] and to start a new life,” Tupas said.
Aside from flowers and lighting of candles, a choir from Barangay Sasa offered songs, and speeches from barangay Sasa officials.
Tupas said the city government of Davao will support the family and survivors.
One of the survivors, Restitutu Amparado, 58, who was then waiting for passengers three meters away from the waiting shed, where the bomb exploded, said he could still picture out what happened.
Amparado was among the 155 injured, a shrapnel piercing his leg that forced him to be a limp.
“I could not really accept it [at first] because I am a good person, we do not know that it would happen,” he said.
After 14 years, Amparado already accepted his fate of being physically impaired, trying to forget and move on from the incident.
With the assistance from the city government, of then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, now the president of the Philippines, Amparado’s son was able to graduate college with a degree on Information Technology.
Amparado is now working with the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, and his wife in the city government.
“I accepted my situation that I no longer have a leg, but I thank Mayor Inday and Pulong [Duterte], who helped us,” he said.
The bombing incident put the blame unto the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya, a group said to be local counterpart of Al Qaeda. Davao’s Sasa bombing incident remains unresolved. (davaotoday.com)
