Statement of Ms. Marielle Trixie J. Bacason
Marielle Trixie J. Bacason, 27 years old, Filipino, and a research nurse
from Putney London, United Kingdom.
(The Statement of Ms. Marielle Trixie J. Bacason was taken through Skype
call on 21 October 2018 by Atty. Hasminah D. Paudac, together with Ms. Desiree
Llanos Dee.)
Q1: Can you please give us a brief information about yourself?
A1: I am Marielle Trixie J. Bacason. I am a super typhoon Yolanda
(“Haiyan”) survivor. I was born and raised in Tacloban City and lived
there until I moved here in London in July 2016. I have three (3)
siblings; one elder brother who was in Dubai, one elder sister who was
working in Manila, and one little nine (9)-year old brother who stays
with me and my mother. My mother works in a real estate business
and my father works abroad. My parents broke up when I was still in
primary school. Before super typhoon Haiyan, I lived with my mom
who was a strong authoritative power in our family, my little brother,
my seventy-five (75)-year old grandmother, and two house helpers.
Q2: Can you describe the community you grew up in?
A2: I lived in a fifty (50)-year old bungalow in Tacloban and grew up in a
small community. Our place never experienced severe flooding since
it was not a flood zone or coastal area. Generally, you can say that our
place was a nice and peaceful neighborhood.
Q3: Can you share what happened the day before super typhoon
Haiyan (Yolanda) struck Tacloban?
A3: At that time, we did not know what a storm surge was. I knew that
Haiyan was the super typhoon that was meant to go to China, and
people of China were so happy that it changed course and was directly
hitting Tacloban instead. A few days before Haiyan, I vaguely saw in
my Facebook news feed that there was a forthcoming strong typhoon
which will cause water to rise… about five (5) meters high. I did not
believe that and paid little attention. I thought it was just exaggerated.
In our community, there was no evacuation plan, no real warning of
what will happen.
But we decided to move out just in case since our house was old and,
also, it was 50%-part concrete and 50%-part wood. We also heard that
there was going to be a power cut, and my little brother plays his
gadgets a lot and cannot really sleep without airconditioning. Our dad
sent us some money for us to stay in a hotel downtown. Initially, my
grandmother did not want to go with us, as she did not mind the power
cut in our old bungalow house. It was then when I scared her with the
random post I saw on Facebook; I told her that the water levels would
rise and she is going to drown and die if she would stayed behind. We