Terror attacks hamper relief efforts for Marawi evacuees

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Food supplies from private and government entities for more than 100,000 evacuees from Marawi City are now pouring in but delivery to conflict-torn areas is difficult due to security constraints.

There were incidents of rescuers driven away with automatic gunshots by terrorists while attempting to get through firing lines to rescue villagers and distribute food to home-based displaced folk.

Military officials said Thursday more than 90 percent of the barangays where Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen laid siege had been cleared but that there are still enemy snipers positioned at strategic spots, rifles aimed at approaching security forces and emergency workers.

Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., who is overseeing the provincial government’s rescue and relief missions in Marawi City, said Thursday thousands of villagers trapped in the crossfire had been rescued in the past seven days through joint efforts of civilian rescuers, the police and personnel of the Philippine Army and the Philippine Marine Corps.

Adiong said a big number of the evacuees are children, adolescents and women, many of them senior citizens.

The provincial government on Wednesday expanded its relief operations to evacuees in Baloi town in nearby Lanao del Norte, where relief workers distributed food and non-food supplies to evacuees.

The offices of Basilan Gov. Jim Hataman and his counterpart in Maguindanao, Esmael Mangudadatu, dispatched on Thursday separate relief contingents to Iligan City bringing them more 30 tons of relief supplies each.

There are more than 40,000 evacuees from Marawi City now confined in gymnasiums and public buildings in Iligan City in Region 10.

The Maguindanao provincial emergency and response team, led by Lynette Estandarte, also brought thousands of liters of potable water and 10 tons of cultured milkfish from inland fish farms in Lake Buluan owned by the family of Mangudadatu.

The Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao already distributed more than 50 tons of food supplies to evacuation sites in continuing operations since May 24, a day after hostilities in Marawi erupted.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command said the military units that arrived in Marawi City the past three days are to help the HEART, the provincial government of Lanao del Sur and other foreign humanitarian outfits attend to the needs of conflict-stricken villagers.

Salma Jayne Tamano, provincial information officer of Lanao del Sur, said besides those in evacuation sites, government relief teams are also providing assistance to 109,510 home-based internally-displaced people.

“Our relief and emergency response personnel are working on a round-the-clock basis since the first day of the hostilities in Marawi City,” Tamano said.

Reports obtained from HEART and Lanao del Sur’s provincial government indicated that relief workers have listed, as of Thursday, a total of 140,155 persons affected by the hostilities in Marawi City.