Muelmar Magallanes: A Hero mourned
“Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth.” That's what Will Rogers--an American entertainer, famous for his pithy and homespun humour--once was quoted.
One 18-year-old teenager from the Phillipines, Muelmar Magallanes, proved with his death how true the above saying is. He swam to save more than 30 people & lost his life as he rescued a six-month-old baby girl.
Maria Luz, his mother described his departed son as "incredibly brave". Muelmar Magallanes is truly a hero.
How many of us--regardless of our age--can make such a strong claim that we have done the best we could to make this world a better place? I can't.Teenager Muelmar Magallanes 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.
Yesterday, family members and the people saved by the 18-year-old construction worker hailed him as a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation centre near their destroyed Manila riverside village.
'I am going to be forever grateful to Muelmar. He gave his life for my baby. I will never forget his sacrifice,' said Ms Menchie Penalosa, the mother of the six-month-old girl he carried to safety before being swept away himself.
Magallanes was at home last Saturday with his family when tropical storm Ketsana unleashed the heaviest rain in more than 40 years on the Philippine capital and surrounding areas.
At first the family, long used to heavy rain, paid little attention to the storm.
But Magallanes and his father decided to evacuate the family once they realised the river 800m away had burst its banks.
With the help of an older brother, Magallanes tied a string around his waist and attached it one-by-one to his three younger siblings, whom he took to higher ground. Then he came back for his parents.
But Magallanes, a strong swimmer, decided to go back for his neighbours, who where trapped on rooftops.
He ended up making many trips, and eventually saved more than 30 people from drowning, witnesses and survivors said.
Tired and shivering, Magallanes was back on higher ground with his family when he heard Ms Penalosa screaming as she and her baby were being swept away on the polystyrene 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 metres 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,' said Ms Penalosa, 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 neighbours were, and then he was gone,' said Ms Penalosa.
She and other witnesses said an exhausted Magallanes was simply washed away amid the torrent of water.
Neighbours found his body on Sunday, along with those of 28 others who perished in Manila's worst flooding in decades.
Standing next to his coffin, Magallanes' parents paid tribute to their son.
'He always had a good heart,' said his father, Samuel.
'We had already been saved. But he decided to go back one last time for the girl.'
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.'
From Asiaone, "He gave up own life to save so many".
Read also:
- Daily Mail, "Philippines floods: Hero teenager saves more than 30 lives before he is swept away". (A lot of photos)
- The Independent, "'He saved us, and then he was gone'".
2 comments:
The short but heroic life of Muelmar Magallanes reminds me that Jesus Christ is present in our midst even in the midst of evil, in this imperfect and cruel world. His love for us is everlasting. I am truly edified by the life of this young man...his heroism and his courage...
I thank Muelmar's parents for raising such a remarkable son to remind us that Filipinos are truly blest and loved by God. Indeed, what the Word of God says is true: "God uses the simple and the young, the inexperienced to shame the strong and the mighty."
I commend Muelmar to the mercy of God. Indeed he belongs to the Kingdom of God!
"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your Father's kingdom." (Matthew 25:21)
Father Philip Francis R. Bersabe
Formator
UST Central Seminary
Espana, Manila
731-0558
Fernão de Magalhães, original Portuguese name of Hernando de Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan, in English), was a great navigator of sixteenth century. He has reached Philippines in March 1921 and died in Mactan Island on April 27th of the same year, struggling with Lapu Lapu, a local warrior that became a national hero. May be Muelmar Magallanes got this name in homage to Hernando, I do not know.
This is related to the news that I have read in the newspapers about Muelmar Magallanes, who gave an example of selflessness saving 30 lives from the Manila's worst floods in 40 years, associated to the typhoon Ketsana, but he had not strength enough to save himself.
Muelmar Magallanes, as his namesake, has struggled against the tropical cyclones. He saved 30 lives from Ketsana but he had not enough strength to save himself. This second Magallanes has become for me the first one in my scale of values.
Olavo Rasquinho
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