Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

My mother is from the Philippines, but it wasn’t until I was 9 years old when I first lived there.  My father was in the US Air Force and was assigned to Clark Air Base.  I wasn’t a stranger to natural disasters at this point.  I’ve already experience earthquakes, tornadoes, and typhoons.  So I didn’t think twice about the 7.7 earthquake that changed not only my life, but the lives of many others and the world in general.

For the months following, I heard of a local tribe living around Mt Pinatubo claiming that their diety, Namalyadi, was angry.  At the time, I was too young to understand their story.  It wasn’t until later in life when I researched this story and discovered corporations had been logging and oil diggings in and around the then dormant volcano.

Fast forward a year later.  I could walk outside my front door, walk just a few steps and turn to my left.  Clouds of sulfur began filling the air.  The amplified smell of a sewer was an inescapable aroma.  Add constant ash falling on the ground, your car, and home.  The tribe known as the Aeta was right.  Namalyadi had demonstrated his anger and power as his control of the 500 year dormant Mt Pinatubo causes it to erupt, causing an almost degree Fahrenheit drop in temperature globally and increase in ozone depletion.  It became the second largest eruption in its century.  The spirit of the Aeta tribe literally blew its top.  Combined with a typhoon, it caused many deaths, injuries, illnesses, and rendered many more homeless.  Not too bad for a diety.