Gov't agencies give relief services to Lanao del Sur town evacuees

MARAWI CITY — Government agencies continued providing relief services to evacuees from conflict-stricken barangays in Butig, Lanao del Sur amid the suspension of offensives against local extremists.
 
Besides having served 1,359 families from six barangays in Butig, the provincial government of Lanao del Sur also extended relief services early this week to displaced Maranaw families that sought refuge in Barangays Navaro, Matampay, Luk’s-a-Datu, Bangon, Basak Malutlut, Pumping, Ambulong and Papandayan in Marawi City.
 
The now outgoing Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. on Friday said he is thankful to the office of the Social Welfare department in Region 12 and to the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for complementing their relief efforts for displaced Butig families.  
 
HEART personnel, led by ARMM Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman and physician Allen Minalang of the Lanao Del Sur Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), also embarked last week on relief missions in Butig.
 
Six barangays in the municipality were affected by deadly clashes between soldiers and members of a Maranaw fanatical group boasting of allegiance to the Independent State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.
 
The HEART, operating under the ministerial control of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, is comprised of relief and rehabilitation experts from the region’s health, social welfare, public works and local government departments.
 
“We are thankful to the HEART for helping us out,” Adiong said Friday.
 
Adiong will assume as vice governor of Lanao del Sur on June 30, after serving as provincial governor for three consecutive terms.
 
Minalang said their medical missions for evacuees from the six conflict-stricken areas in Butig will continue amid the Ramadan fasting season, which started on June 6.
 
Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, as a religious obligation and atonement for wrongdoings, during the Ramadan, which lasts for one lunar cycle, about 28 to 29 days.
 
The Army’s 103rd Brigade has suspended all tactical operations against the religious extremists in Butig, led by Abdullah Maute, to enable local folks to observe the Ramadan undisrupted.
 
The government first initiated a massive police action against Maute and his men last February and resumed with its effort to flush them out of Butig after the May 9 elections when they returned to the municipality and displayed black ISIS flags again.
 
Adiong said they will take advantage of the lull in the military’s operation against the group to reach out to more displaced villagers.