Responders rescue iconic elders trapped in Marawi crossfire

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Rescuers on Thursday relocated away from conflict-torn villages in Marawi City three iconic elders known for having diligently served the Maranaw tribe when they were younger.

Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong, an incumbent member of the Regional Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim in Mindanao, on Friday said the retired judge Pukunum Pundugar, Mama Mangoranca, who is an engineer and Meno Manabilang, a veteran commander of the Moro National Liberation Front, are now in safe areas.

Emergency workers, backed by soldiers and volunteers from various humanitarian organizations, extricated them one after another from their villages with the help of relatives.

All three of them are in their 80s. They were trapped for more than two weeks in their villages in Marawi City where Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists laid siege.

Manabilang is among the pioneer batch of 90 MNLF commanders who trained in guerilla warfare in Jampiras Island in Malaysia in 1972.

He has actively been campaigning for public support to the peace overture between Malacañang and southern Moro communities after the crafting on Sept. 2, 1996 of the final peace pact between the government and the MNLF.

Adiong, spokesman of the joint interim emergency response group of the Lanao del Sur provincial government and the executive department of ARMM, said the three elderly Maranaws were immediately provided with medical attention and food by relief workers.

Combined Rescuers and relief workers of the Lanao del Sur provincial government, the ARMM Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART), the police and the military have rescued no fewer than 6,000 Marawi City residents from the frontlines since May 23.

The hostilities in Marawi City erupted on May 23 with pockets of clashes in Barangay Malulut that eventually spread through other barangays, where terrorists showed force and displayed the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  

Among those rescued were about a thousand Christians, including children and women, ushered out by Muslim elders and rescuers amid heavy exchanges of gunfire between terrorists and soldiers.

Adiong said he is thankful to all private and government rescue and disaster teams from the ARMM and nearby administrative regions now helping the provincial government address the miserable plight of thousands of internally-displace people (IDP) from Marawi City.

Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of ARMM.

Adiong said they are also grateful to the southern Philippines Medical Center for its team now helping in the rehabilitation of sick IDPs from Marawi City.