Like A House of Cards

Jerry Esplanada, in his article for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, revisited the Ruby Tower incident of August 1968. In his report, an earthquake shook Isabela at around four in the morning of August 2, 1968. The quake rolled through an 800 kilometer stretch from Aparri in Cagayan to Samar in a matter of 33 seconds. The Daily Mirror reported that more than 140 aftershocks were felt within a 15-hour period after the major quake. Fires triggered by the tremor hit the South Harbor and Feati University. But the six-story Ruby Tower apartment-building on Doroteo Jose and Teodora Alonzo streets in Sta. Cruz, Manila, collapsed like a house of cards.

I was not yet born when it happened.
But that livid story remains vivid in my memory.

When I was a child, Papa told me stories. He was one good story-teller. He would tell me of secret caves in Makati City where Japanese soldiers used to hide. One time, I remember how we would re-tell me of a picture where a gorilla, the size of a hand, sat on my lola's shoulders. He also told me of some of his escapades (I intend not to put it into writing so as not to incriminate my Dad).

But there was this story. He was on his way home from school. He was then studying in the University of Santo Tomas taking up Electrical Engineering. He passed by Sta. Cruz, Manila to pick-up some goodies for lola. When he reached Sta. Cruz, the streets were terribly panicky -- people were rushing and howling. "Ang gulo-gulo nuon at ang ingay-ingay. Maalikabok pa!" Papa said. "Nagtutulakan ang mga tao nuon. Nuong una, hindi ko maintindihan kung bakit. Ayun pala, gumuho yung Ruby Tower," he added. I think Papa was no longer able to get the goodies he was to bring to Lola. He ended up carrying and removing stones and debris at the corner of Doroteo Jose and Alonzo in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

It “crumpled as if a giant foot had stomped on it, the Ruby Tower was a mass of twisted steel and concrete with an estimated 600 to 800 occupants still trapped inside,” the Daily Mirror reported. When rescue operations ended on Aug. 9, 1968, the official death toll stood at 268. Many of the dead were never identified. But many came to help, most of them nameless; nameless faces helping those helpless victims.

But there was one whom I know. And, I remember him today.