21 Pinoys remembered with nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11 attacks in US

The names of 21 Filipinos will be among those cited during the solemn reading of the names of nearly 3,000 World Trade Center victims on the 11th anniversary of the "9/11 attacks" on Tuesday.

 

According to a report of the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency, the main ceremony will be the ritual reading at New York's Ground Zero of the names of the 2,983 people killed both on 9/11 and in the precursor to those attacks, the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center.

 

AFP said the relatives of the victims will take turns in reading the names.

 

The website of the 9/11 Memorial said 9/11 "is shorthand for four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda, an  Islamist extremist group, that occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001.  The attacks killed 2,977 people."

 

On that day, "19 terrorists from the Islamist extremist  group, al-Qaeda, hijacked four commercial airplanes, deliberately crashing two of the planes into the upper floors of the North and South towers of the World Trade Center  complex and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia," the site said.

The Twin Towers collapsed from the impacts of the plane and the resulting fires.   

"After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93,  fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about  20 minutes by air from Washington, DC.," the 9/11 Memorial website said.

 

The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people from 93 nations. 2,753 people were killed in New 

York,  184 people were killed at the Pentagon and 40 people were killed on Flight 93.

 

Filipino victims

 

A report of the Filipino Reporter in July this year said the Filipino victims of the 9/11 attacks are:

Twin Tower victims

• Grace Alegre Cua
• Cesar A. Alviar
• Marlyn C. Bautista
• Cecile M. Caguicla
• Jayceryll M. de Chavez
• Benilda Pascua Domingo
• Judy Hazel Fernandez
• Ramon Grijalvo
• Frederick Kuo Jr.
• Arnold A. Lim
• Manuel L. Lopez
• Carl Allen Peralta
• Maria Theresa Santillan
• Rufino Conrado (Roy) F. Santos
• David Marc Sullins
• Hilario (Larry) S. Sumaya
• Hector Tamayo, and
• Cynthia Betita Motus Wilson.

 

Fil-Ams killed in planes hijacked and crashed by terrorists

• Ronald Gamboa
• Ruben Ornedo, and
• Manolito Kaur.

 

The Filipino Reporter said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last year that the scrapping of the name-reading was under discussion by the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation, which the mayor also chairs. 

However, in a letter by Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial, this year said the name-reading will continue this year.

 

Last year’s plan was met with anger by the families of some 9/11 victims, who said the reading by family members should remain part of the official Ground Zero ceremony, the Filipino Reporter said.

 

A lottery system was used to select the family members that will read the names of the victims.

Health concerns

 

Meanwhile, in a report of Chris Francescani on Reuters said 11 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, New Yorkers will mark the anniversary on Tuesday against a backdrop of health concerns for emergency workers and a feud over financing that has stopped construction of the $1 billion Ground Zero museum.

 

While notable progress on redevelopment of the World Trade Center has been made since early disputes over financial, design and security issues, the project remains hobbled by political battles and billions of dollars in cost overruns.

 

A major sticking point is the museum at the heart of the World Trade Center (WTC) site redevelopment. Construction has been suspended because of a feud over finances between the National September 11 Memorial and Museum foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

 

When the foundation announced recently that for the first time, politicians would be excluded from having speaking roles in the Sept. 11 anniversary ceremonies, it was seen by many victims' families and others in the 9/11 community as a public reflection of these behind-the-scenes disputes.

 

Overall site redevelopment costs have grown to nearly $15 billion, up from $11 billion in 2008, according to a recent project audit.

 

But for many of the families of 9/11 victims and ailing Ground Zero workers, the redevelopment disputes are a disheartening sideshow to the rising loss of human lives.

 

When the 110-storey Twin Towers came down, thousands of tons of steel, concrete, window glass and asbestos came down with it. While thousands of gallons (litres) of flaming jet fuel and burning plastics released deadly carcinogens.

 

Last week, the New York City Fire Department added nine names to the 55 already etched on a wall honoring members who have died of illnesses related to Ground Zero rescue and recovery work.

 

Some estimates put the overall death toll from 9/11-related illness at more than 1,000. Nationwide, at least 20,000 Ground Zero workers are being treated and 40,000 are being monitored by the World Trade Center Health Program.

 

"We're burying guys left and right," said Nancy Carbone, executive director of Friends of Firefighters, a Brooklyn-based non-profit that helps treat first responders. "This is an ongoing epidemic."

 

In the past seven weeks, three New York City cops, two firefighters and a construction union worker who toiled at Ground Zero have died of cancer or respiratory illnesses, according John Feal, who runs a non profit that monitors Ground Zero health care issues.

 

The staggered nature of the respiratory diagnoses have complicated efforts to distribute $2.7 billion in federal victim compensation funds. A range of cancers is expected to be added to the list of ailments covered by the fund this month.

 

Leslie Haskins, who lost her husband on 9/11, said she has grown disillusioned by the politics of the reconstruction, and wants to see more attention paid to the ailing workers.

 

"They are sick and dying and their marriages are breaking up," she said. "Why are we pouring all this money into buildings when men don't have enough insurance to buy breathing apparatus?"

 

Progress and setbacks

 

Retired Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) battalion chief Jim Riches, who spent nine months digging through the rubble at Ground Zero before his firefighter son's body was recovered, called the reconstruction disputes "a disgrace."

 

Seven years ago, Riches was hospitalized with acute respiratory disease and fell into a 16-hour coma. He came out of the coma with stroke-like symptoms.

 

"We can send men to the moon but we can't rebuild some buildings in more than 10 years?" he asked.

 

Some progress has been made by Larry Silverstein, the developer who owned the lease on the Twin Towers and is now building three office towers at the Ground Zero site, and the Port Authority.

The September 11 foundation has also raised hundreds of millions in private and public funding for the overall project.

 

One step forward was last fall's opening of the September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero, twin reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers. More than four million people have visited.

 

Also, One World Trade Center, one of the tallest towers in the country, is near completion and expected to open in 2014.

 

Yet disagreements over costs have undermined the rebuilding and hurt public relations. Among the disputes, the September 11 foundation insists the Port Authority owes it $140 million, according to a source familiar with the financial issues.

 

The Port Authority believes it is owed $300 million, the source said.

 

Feal, a demolitions expert who lost part of his leg doing post 9/11 recovery work, is among those who said they are tired of reading about the contentious World Trade Center project when health concerns persist.

 

"2,751 lives were lost that day," he said "That's sad, but they didn't suffer long. These first responders have been slowly dying for 11 years." - with reports from AFP, Reuters, AM/VVP, GMA News