The tribe that lost its home

ONLY a few kilometres from Angeles City, and still 20 kilometres from Pinatubo, a river bed has been engulfed by mud and lava some 30 metres deep.

The lethal mixture swept down from Pinatubo and washed over the banks to bury houses and churches. Only the roof and a defiant cross remind you that once one building had been a place of worship.

Some villagers are now re-building their homes, using the volcanic sediment as foundations. Lost homes, lost lives. This is now a tourist attraction.

I met 90-year-old Maria Santos who now lives in a small nipa hut, surrounded by a lunar-like landscape.

She explained through an interpreter that her original home is now entombed beneath her feet.

In one of the tribal areas I reached over dirt roads, 700 families have been re-settled in bamboo and grass huts in the shadow of Pinatubo.