Marawi relief workers lauded for their efforts

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Officials on Friday lauded relief workers serving without fear in strife-torn Marawi City and all benefactors helping provide for the needs of evacuees.

Among the entities now helping attend to evacuees are the World Food Programme of the United Nations, the Gawad Kalinga and other private outfits.

Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong of the Autonomous Region in Muslim said on Friday that the Lanao del Sur Provincial Crisis Management Committee is grateful to all relief workers serving in dangerous areas in Marawi City since May 23.

The conflict in Marawi City began on May 23, after combined Maute terrorists and Abu Sayyaf gunmen laid siege to strategic areas there, sparking hostilities that have since dragged on.

“Since May 23, these relief teams, unfazed by dangers, already rescued a total of 1,758 Muslim and Christian residents trapped in the crossfire,” said Adiong, who is PCMC’s spokesman.

He is an incumbent representative of Lanao del Sur to the 24-seat ARMM Regional Assembly, touted as “Little Malacañang” of the autonomous region.

Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of ARMM, which also covers Maguindanao in central Mindanao, and the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

A report obtained on Friday from the PCMC indicated that the provincial rescue and retrieval teams recovered in the past two months 57 cadavers whose identities remained unknown, possibly villagers caught in the crossfire.

The reports also stated that 27 of the 57 cadavers had been buried in a public cemetery in Marawi City last July 27 by rescuers and emergency workers.

“These rescuers and relief workers are so industrious and brave, working out there in the field, helping save lives without complaining,” Adiong said.

He said a big number of the provincial rescuers and rehabilitation workers are themselves evacuees too.

“They are residents of Marawi City and so they themselves are internally displaced people too,” Adiong said.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman told reporters on Friday that he is grateful to the WFP for helping feed thousands of displaced school children now in temporary learning sites in campuses outside of Marawi City.

The United Nations Children Fund and the World Vision, an international Christian child welfare organization donated tents for the TLS, where children from Marawi City now hold classes.

The WFP, whose representative to the Philippines is Praveen Agraval, helped the ARMM government feed thousands of drought-stricken peasant families in the adjoining South and North Upi towns in Maguindanao last year.

“The World Food Programme supplies the rice our education department utilizes for an ongoing feeding program for school children from Marawi City,” Hataman said.

The feeding program is a joint initiative of the office of ARMM’s regional education secretary, John Magno and the Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, most known only as Gawad Kalinga.

The Gawad Kalinga is a Philippine-based humanitarian entity focused on nation building and poverty alleviation.

Hataman, chairman of the regional peace and order council, said credit also has to go to employees of ARMM’s health and social welfare departments for their extensive operations in the troubled Marawi City.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command said teams of soldiers are on standby, ready to assist the PCMC and ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team.

Soldiers, personnel of the Lanao del Sur provincial government and HEART were together in a relief mission for thousands of evacuees now in houses of relatives and in evacuation sites in Bubong town.

The joint relief mission facilitated the distribution of 1,900 bags of rice to evacuees from Marawi City accommodated by the local government unit of Bubong, one of 39 towns in Lanao del Sur.

Galvez said he is grateful to mayors in Lanao del Sur who accommodated evacuees from Marawi City in their towns.

“With pride and honor, we also appreciate the efforts of the rescuers and emergency workers serving in Marawi City since May 23. That is one form of heroism we ought to acknowledge and be proud of,” Galvez said via mobile phone on Friday.