"It is a great opportunity to be able to help. The situation here is indescribable, I thought only a small landslide had hit this place but what we found here was a massive tragedy," Staff Sgt. Trini Yabut, 34, of the US marines, said yesterday.

Yabut, who is originally from Luzuriaga Street, Bacolod, is one of two Negrenses and about 10 Americans with roots in the Philippines who are part of the US troops helping in the rescue work in Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte that was hit by a landslide Friday leaving more than 1,000 buried beneath the mud.

The other Negrense is Commander Manuel "Don" Biadog, chaplain of the United States 3rd Marine Expedition Force, who is also in Leyte. Yabut, who was at ground zero in the thick of rescue work in Guinsaugon with Biadong yesterday, said in a phone interview with the DAILY STAR that he went to the United States to finish his engineering degree in Baltimore, Maryland in 1990, but joined the marines in 1992 because he always wanted to be in the military.

"I am proud of what I do and I am glad to be of help to my kababayans," he said.

Biadong told the DAILY STAR yesterday that he stood in the midst of the mud-covered Guinsaugon village and prayed that if there are still people alive beneath where he stood, they would not give up hope until rescuers got to them.

The chances of finding people alive are getting slimmer as the days go by but we cannot and do not want to lose hope, said Biadog, 49, who was born in Talisay City, Negros Occidental .

Biadog had gone to the United States in 1979 to study to be a pastor on a scholarship in the Southeastern College in Mississippi and joined the US Navy in 1990.

As chaplain of the Navy for 16 years he has counseled those devastated in the 9/11 New York tragedy, traveled to help the poor in East Timor, provided spiritual guidance to soldiers in Iraq but in his work that has taken him to many countries around the world, never has the pain of the people been so close to home for him, Biadog said.

"This time I am working among my people, my blood brothers and sisters, my heart goes to the families of those who perished. What we have seen here has been horrendous," he said.

Yesterday Biadog also had another first. He met a president of the Philippines when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited ground zero in Guinsaugon.

I have met two US presidents - Bill Clinton and Geoge Bush - but never a Philippine president, he said.

My general took me to meet her and I told her I condoled with the Filipino people and she said "Thank you, thank you for your help."

He also met and spoke with Former First Lady Imelda Marcos who also visited Guinsaugon yesterday.

Mrs. Marcos, who was reported to have upstaged Arroyo in Guinsaugon, told the media, "As the first lady and the mother of this country this (tragedy) really overwhelms me." Biadog yesterday was distributing care packages to the survivors of the landslide that contained food, toiletries and slippers.

He said he has been helping in the rescue, finding more aid to help the people and providing counseling to the rescuers.*CPG

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