THE night before Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) made landfall two years ago, Ashra Mary Jaye C. Floria was excited to go to school, as she has already finished her scrapbook project for her Values Education subject. She was to submit the scrapbook in school the following day.
She never thought that the excitement and happiness she felt before she went to bed would turn to terror as she woke up at 3 a.m. to see the wrath of the typhoon. Their house was rapidly destroyed. Yolanda blew away their roof, windows and walls.
“Only the post of the house was left, as well as part of the wall,” she recalled. “We decided not to leave the house. We felt the danger outside.”
Ashra, 18, is living with the family of her mother’s uncle Dionisio, whom she called “Tito.” Her parents, Joel and Evangeline, had separated since she was 9 years old. She has two younger brothers, Eugene Jaye, 16; and Aaron Jaye, 14.
Ashra is a teenager still in the process of healing, two years after the disaster. She is trying to move on.
She is the valedictorian of Homonhon National High School (HNHS) in Casiguran Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar. For a week after the typhoon, she said they were just eating coconut to survive. When the C-130 of the Armed Forces of the Philippines arrived in their place, her Tito Dionisio decided that she would leave for Villamor Airbase in Pasay City, where she saw her grandmother.
With nothing to do in Villamor, instead of getting bored and worried of what would happen to them, Ashra joined the art activity being given by a non-governmental organization for the children who were victims of Yolanda.
Her work impressed Tess Lopez, a friend of San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez. She said that her drawing was given by Lopez to a priest, and was eventually seen by Gomez. Little did she know that God was opening doors and windows for her dreams to come true. Speaking in Filipino, she said she was taken by Lopez to the house of Gomez.
Lopez asked her what she wanted to take up when she went to college and, she answered Accountancy.
She recalled that Gomez was elated upon hearing it, saying that Accountancy is one of the best courses offered in the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in San Juan.
Right then and there, Ashra said that Gomez offered to make Asha her personal scholar. Right after she graduated valedictorian in HNHS, she went back to Manila with her mother, who brought her to Lopez. She then took up the entrance exam at PUP, and passed it. She believes it is destiny to become a scholar of Gomez. Ashra, who is now on her second year in college taking up Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, is one of two students of PUP-San Juan on the mayor’s list.
A mayor’s lister is a student who earned a general weighted average (GWA) of 1 to 1.5. She received the award during the second semester when she was still in first year in college. At present, she is still waiting for the result if she maintained her grades for the first semester of the school year. A dean’s lister is a student who has a GWA of 1.51 to 1.75.
Gomez, she said, was even surprised to see that she is one of the awardees in a simple ceremony held in the school.
Ashra said that she doesn’t want Gomez to be disappointed with her. “I study well to show the mayor I deserve to be her scholar. It is just sad that I have had no communication with my brothers for the past nine years, as both my parents have different families now,” she said.
She added that she wants to become a certified public accountant and work in SGV & Co., the country’s largest professional services firm that provides assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.