FOR eleven years, journalist John Paul Barsopia clings to the hope that his 59-year-old uncle, Ruben, is still alive and living somewhere.

Ruben is among the 400 victims of tropical storm Sendong (international name: Washi) that were buried in unmarked graves here and nearby Iligan City despite DNA tests conducted by the National Bureau Of Investigation medico-legal teams eleven years ago.

“We still cling to the hope he is alive and living somewhere but as the years passed, this become dimmer and dimmer. We have slowly accepted that Uncle Ruben did not survive,” Barsopia who works in a local radio station here said.

Barsopia lost two uncles that fateful night of December 16, 2011, as tropical storm “Sendong” unleashed some 475 of rain over a 24-hour period.

IN MEMORIAM. A woman lit candles at the Sendong Memorial Wall in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday. The wall contains the names of the 400 people who remained missing until today eleven years after tropical storm Sendong inundated the villages beside the Cagayan River. Photo by Froilan Gallardo

The Cagayan de Oro River rose by as much as 30 feet, wiping out settlements in the riverside barangays of Balulang, Carmen, and Macasandig.

Figures from the Office of Civil Defense said that 674 people died in Cagayan de Oro and another 490 died in nearby Iligan City.

Barsopia said they found the body of his other uncle, Ely, 56-year-old, strung at the foot of Ysalina Bridge the next day.

“I tried to rescue my Uncle Ruben. I swam to his house but the river current was too strong,” Barsopia narrated.

Fellow news reporters found Barsopia wet, shivering, and pleading for help to find his uncle on top of the bridge in the morning.

Three months later, Barsopia said the NBI Disaster Victims Identification team extracted DNA sampling from his grandmother, Mercedes, in the hope of finding a match among the samples from 200 unidentified bodies in Cagayan de Oro and another 124 bodies in Iligan.

The bodies were buried in an unmarked vault in Bolonsiri public cemetery here and a cemetery in Iligan City.

“Up to this day, the NBI did not give the result, Namatay na lang ako Lola,” Barsopia said.

Former social welfare chief of Cagayan de Oro City Teddy Sabugaa said the NBI did not release the results of the DNA matching during the nine-year term of former Mayor Oscar Moreno.

Sabugaa said the matching could not be processed due to the lack of reagents.

Dr. Tammy Uy, NBI Region 10 medico-legal chief in an interview on December 16, 2014, said the money to complete the DNA tests ran out in 2012.

He said 800 family members came to the NBI office to have their DNA taken.

CANDLE-LIGHTING. Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy (in a black and white shirt) lit a candle at the Sendong Memorial Wall in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday. Uy said the tragedy of tropical storm Sendong that left hundreds of residents dead should be a wake up call for the city to seriously prepare for climate disasters. Photo by Froilan Gallardo

Mayor Rolando Uy said the Sendong tragedy is a wake-up call for the city and residents to seriously plan for climate disasters.

“I remembered that the people in Balulang and Carmen did not heed our calls to evacuate hours before the Cagayan de Oro River overflowed from its banks,” Uy said.

“The people simply told our responders that they were used to flooding of the river and there was no need to evacuate,” he added.

Uy said by the time the river overflowed from its banks, it was already too late for the responders to evacuate the residents.