Tacloban Association holds mass for Yolanda victims

By Steve Angeles, ABS-CBN North America Bureau

Nov. 14, 2013

CARSON, Calif. – At a special mass vigil Filipinos with ties to the Visayas had their loved ones in their thoughts, offering prayers for the deceased,missing, and those fighting to survive.

“My younger sister Celesty who is still unaccounted for and also my elder brother that died from drowning,” Edwin Tiu of the Tacloban Association of Southern California sighed.

“One cousin is missing, we still don’t have any word on him,” Fleur Mendiola who hails from Leyte said. “But I was just told today the Mendiola clan in Tacloban, not one of them has been found yet and that really saddens me so much.”

“We haven’t heard from Perla Afable, and from Teresita Gonzales and their families,” Susan Urbayan David said.

The Tacloban Association of Southern California held a prayer vigil in Carson California helping bring some ease to Filipinos worrying over victims of Typhoon Yolanda.

Many of the association’s 200 members have friends and family members missing or dead. Making matters worse are reports of looting, and the slow relief efforts.

“I am sad to say that our government is there to help but the help is slow in coming,” Tacloban native Edna Asuncion said. “I’m sure they are helping in everything that they can but it’s very slow. We need them right now not tomorrow.”

The highest ranking Filipino in the U.S. Catholic Church, Los Angeles Bishop Oscar Solis, had also released a statement and plea for help to the nation’s largest Filipino Catholic community.

The statement, read aloud during the vigil, said: “I personally appeal to all our pastors and communities for compassion as well as immediate action in the spirit of Christian unity.”

You can contact Steve Angeles at steve_angeles@abs-cbn.com for more information