Basilan residents displaced by fighting get government aid

BASILAN, Philippines -- Thousands of displaced Muslims were given government relief Sunday in a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf in Tipo-Tipo town that security forces took over two weeks ago.

 

The relief mission was a joint project of the office of Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the provincial government of Basilan and Anak Mindanao Party-list.

 

Thousands of Yakan villagers were displaced in the military’s recent offensive that forced some 300 Abu Sayyaf gunmen out of Barangay Baguindan in Tipo-Tipo, where they established a camp, took money at gunpoint from residents and taught them to hate non-Muslims.   

 

Hataman and his older brother, Jim, who is incumbent governor of Basilan, led volunteers in Sunday’s distribution of food pack, medicines and farming aid, to more than 7,000 displaced residents.

 

The relief operation, facilitated by the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team, was assisted by the local government of Tipo-Tipo and by Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman and Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., the regional government’s Social Welfare and Health secretaries, respectively.

 

Hataman said thanked the military and the provincial police office in Basilan for helping in the day-long humanitarian outreach activity in Barangay Baguindan.

 

The government has launched intensive operations against the Abu Sayyaf in nearby Sulu province. According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which has been conducting relief drives there, fighting in Sulu had affected 23,920 people as of Sunday.