THE DAY DAGUPAN SHOOK, CRUMBLED

IT was July 16, 1990 when a giant earthquake brought Dagupan down to its knees and the thousands of Dagupeños that survived it can never forget how they survived with it. One of them was Manay Gina de Venecia.

She recently recalled vivid accounts of that day with her children Christopher and the late KC, who were then four years and two and one-half years old, respectively. She and the kids were set to leave for Baguio from their home in Bonuan Binloc in Dagupan.

The children of then Fourth District Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. (JDV) were excited to go boating at the Burnham Park Lagoon and would spend the night at the Hyatt Terraces Baguio.

On the day they were supposed to leave for Baguio, Manay Gina suffered a terrible headache, so bad that she and her and family eventually decided to postpone the trip.

The headache turned out providential because had they proceeded with the trip for that planned vacation, perhaps she and her two children would not be around today.

She felt God must have intervened because had they proceeded to Baguio City she, Chris and KC would have been among the hundreds buried under the rubbles when the Hyatt Terraces collapsed like a deck of cards as a result of that 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck at 3:26 p.m. (Day Light Savings Time) that day.

“That was a miracle, a grace of the Lord, a mission that has not been accomplished, that could be the reasons why that trip that had long been planned did not happen,” Manay Gina reminisced with a sigh.

In Dagupan, many buildings collapsed while the others simply sank about a meter or more down the ground due to liquefaction. The roads and streets appeared as if they were plowed and harrowed many times over, and the Magsaysay Bridge collapsed. Many thought Dagupan was rained with bombs that left many of its infrastructures in shambles and tilting in all directions.

When Manay Gina realized how the earthquake left many desolate and despondent, she opened their house in Bonuan Binloc to whoever needed help. She said she lost count of how many came asking for food, for cash for clothes and her household scrambled to give whatever they could provide.

In the days that followed, she said JDV talked to then President Corazon Aquino, to plead with her not to condemn and transfer Dagupan City in spite of the destruction the city  sustained from the destructive earthquake.

Still fresh in the memory of Manay Gina is the fact that because of the desire of her husband JDV to put Dagupan back on its feet, he crafted Republic Act No. 6960 or the law that authorized the Earthquake Rehabilitation Fund to ensure the rehabilitation of Dagupan from the rubble of the earthquake.

But because the national government at the time could not extend the financial assistance in time, JDV went to Europe and the United States to campaign for aid for the city.

Slowly, with the grace of God, life in Dagupan and the Fourth District slowly returned to normal but not without scarred memories.

Christopher since became a congressman of the fourth district, following the footsteps of his mother and father. But tragedy still struck home when KC died when she was 16 years old in that horrific fire that struck their home in Makati City in 2004. (Leonardo Micua)

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