Summarized from the
Philippine Daily Inquirer.
During the massive flooding caused by Typhoon Ondoy that wrecked havoc to Metro Manila on Sept 26, 2009. We're heard stories of our fellowmen doing acts of heroism and bravery with little thoughts about their own safety.
Just like the story about a Judge Ralph Lee of Regional Trial Court Branch 83.
“I heard that so many families were already stranded on their rooftops because water from the Tullahan River was already overflowing,” Lee, 49, told the Inquirer.
Lee drove from his Fairview home for the stricken community 30 minutes away with his personal water craft, life vests and two rubber boats he used on weekend wakeboarding sorties and mobilized a rescue effort that saved 100 lives.
Because of Judge Lee's efforts, people were calling him "Superman".
There were other super heroes, like Muelmar Magallanes, a powerful swimmer who braved rampaging floods to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl who was being swept away on a styrofoam box.
Family members and people whom Magallanes saved hailed on Monday the 18-year-old construction worker a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation center near their destroyed riverside village in Quezon City.
For the 18 year old Magallanes and his family, once they realized the river 800 meters away has burst its banks, they decided to evacuate. First he tied ropes around his waist and attached it to his three other siblings. Once they were safe, he went back for his parents.
After making sure his family was safe, Magallanes who was a strong swimmer decided to go back and help his neighbors and eventually saved 30 people.
Tired and shivering, Magallanes was back on higher ground with his family when he heard Peñalosa, mother of a six month old baby screaming as she and her baby were being swept away on the styrofoam box they were using in an attempt to cross the swift currents.
He dived back in after the mother and daughter, who were already a few meters away and bobbing precariously among the debris floating on the brown water.
“I didn’t know that the current was so strong. In an instant, I was under water. We were going to die,” Peñalosa said, her eyes welling with tears and voice choking with emotion.
“Then this man came from nowhere and grabbed us. He took us to where the other neighbors were, and then he was gone,” Peñalosa said.
She and other witnesses said an exhausted Magallanes was simply washed away amid the torrent of water.
Neighbors found his body on Sunday, along with 28 others who perished in the flooding.
Standing next to his coffin, Magallanes’ parents paid tribute to their son.
“He always had a good heart,” said his father, Samuel.
His mother, Maria Luz, wept as she described her son as incredibly brave.
“He saved so many people, but ended up not being able to save himself.”
Our prayers to the Magallanes family.
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