Septuagenarian Leyteño, super typhoon survivor, relishes blessings during holidays

Septuagenarian Leyteño, super typhoon survivor, relishes blessings during holidays

Reynaldo de Veyra Musca with birthday cake celebrating his 75th year.

Reynaldo de Veyra Musca, a septuagenarian native of Tanauan, Leyte, Philippines who has always stayed in his beloved hometown although he has numerous relatives all over Canada, the United States, and United Arab Emirates – is just happy to be where he is right now to enjoy three blessings he received during the 2022 holiday season, for which he remains thankful.

First, he turned a hale and hearty 75-year old last Dec. 8, still able to go sprinting with his four year-old granddaughter, Rheign.

The Musca siblings: Standing from left: Reynaldo, Rodolfo, Rolando, Raul; (seated from left) Lourdes, Asuncion, Shercy, Lilia, Loreta and Leah.

Second, he spent a rare Christmas and New Year celebration with all his siblings – six sisters and three brothers—completing 10 of them in one place at one time, in  their ancestral home; and all his three children Regie, Michael and Richard, and his beloved wife of four decades, Lina.

Third, he got a second grandchild, Jed Amare (by daughter Regie and husband Deo Chavez), whose birth at first scared them, as he was placed on oxygen for five days.  But thanks to the care of hospital staff—the doctor and the nurses, and for the prayers and well wishes of family and friends, Baby Jed came home strong and healthy just before Christmas day.

Reynaldo de Veyra Musca (5th from left) celebrating his 75th year with family.

Musca is best remembered as the barrio captain of Barangay Buntay in Tanauan, a town that suffered severe destruction and loss of lives when Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) lashed its fury with strong winds and a storm surge on November 8, 2013 that killed over 2,000 of the town’s residents alone.

Kap (for captain) Nalding, as he is fondly called, was one of the first reached by a media team from a national television station that had managed to get to the scene of the heavily battered town. During the brief interview, Musca, surrounded by family and a number of grieving survivors,  made a tearful appeal  for help for his beleaguered townmates. When asked what was needed, he could only say “bulig” or help, in the form of food, water, and medicine. In the process, he could not hide his anguish as he broke down, after  having just helped find and carry some of the bodies of his townmates, many of them later buried in a common grave at the plaza.

The television footage reached national and international audience and was said to have been one of the first powerful appeals for help that revealed the serious extent of devastation and misery brought about by the killer typhoon.  Across the Philippines, the storm affected, according to official estimates, more than 16,000 people – killing an estimated 6,300 and injuring more than 28, 000.

Musca’s emotional appeal was believed by townsfolk to have been one of the early powerful voices heard that helped bring about the outpouring of international help from various parts of the world.  —M.Astorga Garcia