The Good News

MANILA, Philippines — He never had a chance to save most of his belongings. Instead, he saved more than 10 of his neighbors. Using his family’s two-seater kayak, 27-year-old Juan Paolo Mateo braved the flood that swept through Marikina City to save lives.

Store owner Teodorico Sta. Ana, 61, said: “We would not have survived if he did not help us.”

As the strong currents swirled around him on Saturday afternoon, Mateo paddled his pink-colored kayak toward Sta. Ana, his daughter Lorelyn, 35, and their three employees, who were waving and crying for help from their store.

Mateo was on his way back to his house to retrieve some of his possessions when he saw the Sta. Anas standing on the store’s counter, their legs soaked in the rising waters.

The kayak can only sit two people so Mateo asked the five to cling to the boat as the rain poured. Sta. Ana said his arms were already shaking but Mateo told them: “Don’t let go. Whatever happens, don’t let go.”

Mateo brought them near an apartment on higher ground and two men, seeing the group, jumped into the water and plucked out Sta. Ana and his four companions.

But currents dragged the kayak with Mateo still on it and flipped it over. Sta. Ana said he could just helplessly watch as the man who had saved them was swept off by the raging waters.

“I was hoping that if I would not survive, at least my family can find my body,” Mateo told the Inquirer.

Luckily, the currents pushed him and the kayak against a wall, preventing him from being swept away further.

“I did not really plan to rescue people. But when you hear other people screaming for help, how can you pretend not to hear?” Mateo said.

First time

Mateo, an insurance agent, lives with his partner Iona and their year-old daughter Jianna in a bungalow about 300 meters away from the two-story house of her parents at the New Marikina Subdivision in Barangay San Roque.

The village is prone to flooding but Iona said this was the first time that flood had swamped entire houses.

Before he came to the rescue of his neighbors, Mateo, with the help of his mother-in-law, Vivien Jalijali, 60, brought Iona and Jianna to his in-laws’ house, plodding for one hour through waist-deep waters.

Seeing the kayak hanging on the terrace of his mother-in-law’s house, Mateo decided to use the boat to return to his house and salvage more of his belongings, including important documents.

Iona’s parents bought the kayak three years ago. Vivien said she and her husband Leonardo loved fishing and they would use the kayak to fish in places as far as Batangas.

People screaming

Until Saturday, Mateo had never used the kayak.

On the boat, Mateo said he heard people screaming for help. He also saw a child clinging to a tree and heard a woman asking for help for her old parents.

Mateo used the kayak to bring them to high ground.

After a brief rest, he set out again in the afternoon, this time to get the other things he had left behind in his bungalow.

With the waters raging uncontrolled, he thought of returning to his mother-in-law’s house, worried about his own family since there is a creek behind the house.

Then he saw Sta. Ana’s group trapped in the sari-sari store on Laurel Street.

Ready to give up

Sta. Ana’s cook, Rosie Festejo, recalled that at one point, she wanted to release her hold on the kayak: “I was thinking of many things. I was worried about my parents who were in Barangay Tumana. I wanted to let go.”

But Sta. Ana’s daughter Lorelyn yelled at her and told her to hold on. “We were quarreling in the middle of a disaster,” Lorelyn said later, laughing.

The kayak overturned after Mateo brought them to safe ground.

Mateo thought it was his end. “I thought about my family. I screamed for help but nobody could help me. But I cannot blame them. The currents were very strong.”

Stranded on the roof

Iona said she was very worried at that time for Mateo, and was angry that he had left his in-laws’ house. By then, the waters had become turbulent.

Mateo said he managed to swim to a housing compound where several people were struggling to carry an old woman to the roof of a two-story house. He said he got out of the kayak and helped carry the woman to the roof.

Mateo and 20 other people stayed on the roof overnight as the rain kept coming down and the flood kept rising. The night had turned pitch black.

Chance of helping others

Using the cell phone of one of his companions on the roof, Mateo said he sent a message to Iona that he was safe.

On Sunday morning, he used the kayak to check on his bungalow. But he lost the paddles and had to use his hands to keep the boat going.

He saw that his car was already under water.

Later, again using the kayak, he brought the Sta. Ana family to their house and store. The store owner gave him a pack of cheese-flavored biscuits as a way of saying thank you.

Mateo said he felt happy that when the opportunity came for him to help others on that tragic day, he did not let the chance go by.