Manila: A tourist guide killed in the Mount Mayon eruption in southern Luzon was to marry his long-time partner.
Jerome Berin, 23, was scheduled to marry Ria on June 15, his father Romeo Berin told the Inquirer newspaper.
The Mayon volcano erupted last Tuesday also killing three Germans and a Spaniard.
Berin, who worked as a driver in Manila, decided to take up the tour guide assignment to help with the wedding expenses. “I knew that he worked as a merchandiser in one of the local grocery stores,” said the older Berin. He did not know that his son doubled up as a tour guide. For almost a year, Berin was working as a part-time tour guide at Bicol Adventure and Travel Tours.
The extra money was necessary for both of them for their wedding and their three-year old love child whose birth would be legitimized with their marriage in June.
Narrating the child’s reaction to her father’s absence since Tuesday, the tour guide’s mother Amparo Berin, said, “She is always asking, ‘Where is Dada?’ Why is it taking him a long time to come home?”
The daughter has been told about her father’s death, “but because she’s very young, she does not understand (what death means),” said the mother.
Berin’s body and that of the four European fatalities – Joanne Edosa, Roland Pietieze, Farah Frances, and Furian Stelter – were recovered and airlifted from Camp 1 of the volcano’s Malilipot trail to the Tactical Operations Group of the Philippine Air Force on Thursday morning.
Thai national, Boonchai Jattupornong, a survivor, was found near Camp 2 of the Mayon Volcano on Thursday, but was brought to a hospital in Legazpi City on Friday.
Two other Thai survivors Thawiburut Udomkiat and Benjamaporn Sansuk were brought to a hospital in Legazpi on Wednesday.
Rescued on Tuesday were Austrian Sabine Strohberger, Thais Nithi Ruangpisit and Tanut Ruchipiyrak, Australian Ewan Marshall and his girlfriend Michelle Abad. Also found alive on that day were tour guides Bernard Hernandez, Calixto Balunso, Kenneth Jesalva, and Nicanor Mabao Jr.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda warned that a year of jail time will be imposed on violators of an ordinance to be passed that would ban crater climbing and mountaineering on Mayon volcano.
