Food supplies pour in for evacuees, but…

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines  – Food supplies from private and government entities for more than 140,000 evacuees from Marawi City are now pouring in, but security constraints are making it difficult to deliver the assistance to those affected by the hostilities.

According to authorities, there were incidents of rescuers being driven away with gunshots by terrorists while attempting to get through firing lines to rescue villagers and distribute food to home-based internally displaced persons (IDPs), or those forced to flee their homes but are staying with relatives or friends.

Based on reports from the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Lanao del Sur provincial government, a total of 140,155 persons were affected by the hostilities in Marawi.

More than 40,000 evacuees are staying in gymnasiums and public buildings in Iligan City in Region 10.

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 IDPs.

Military officials said yesterday more than 90 percent of the barangays where Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen laid siege had been cleared, but snipers of the terror groups are still positioned in strategic spots, targeting 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, said 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 of Lanao del Sur 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 more than 30 tons of relief supplies each.

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 HEART already distributed more than 50 tons of food supplies to evacuation sites in continuing operations since May 24, a day after hostilities in Marawi City 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.

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

In Iligan City, evacuees are looking forward to the resolution of the conflict in their hometown Marawi so they could start life anew.

In an evacuation center in Barangay Maria Cristina, Alicia Agosto-Alonto, who was among the first to escape while the fighting was not yet intense, told The STAR she helps her son-in-law, Ibrahim Sultan, a fish dealer in Palitan market in Marawi, as they try to go on with their business.

At the fish landing area in Barangay Tambacan in Iligan, Sultan told a customer he would resume selling fish in Palitan as soon as possible.

While it took Alonto and Sultan 12 hours on board a private truck to reach Iligan, Alonto said they could now relax and sleep well knowing that they are well attended to at the evacuation center.

Alonto said they fled together with her granddaughters aged 12, 13, 14 and 17 – all studying at Moncado Pilot Elementary School in Marawi.

Retired Mindanao State University professor Abulais Dica and his son, MSU professor Abdul Fatah, travelled for seven hours from Marawi to Iligan.

“The road in Pantar was slippery and you would not be able to count the number of checkpoints, they were too many,” they said.

The older Dica has 17 grandchildren in the evacuation center.

Abdul Fatah said he will immediately report for work at MSU as soon as the situation normalizes.

“I met new friends coming from different towns in Lanao del Sur and became closer with old friends here,” said the elder Dica.

Fearing the entry of Maute, Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia imposed a three-hour lockdown from 12 midnight to 3 a.m. yesterday.

Intelligence reports showed Maute members might go along with the people hurrying to enter the city. “I will repeat the lockdown if necessary,” he said.

A curfew was imposed from 10 p.m. to 4:00 a.m.

Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro City started a lockdown in their areas and required people entering their respective areas to present identification cards.

Those who did not have IDs were required to write their names and other details for use of other government agencies assisting the evacuees.

Local government officials appealed to President Duterte to end the hostilities soon.

“We hope (Duterte) would direct (the military) to really solve this crisis,” Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson for the Provincial Crisis Management Committee of Lanao del Sur, said.

Adiong is also an ARMM assemblyman.

He said Duterte’s declaration of martial law which covers the entire Mindanao is not the best approach but a “practical solution to the problem” so there would be no spillover of hostilities.

He expressed hopes the crisis would soon end as he disclosed some of the civilians staying in temporary shelters have contracted common illnesses such as fever, colds and cough due to lack of nutrition, sleep deprivation and stress, which could spread if not addressed right away.

Adiong said medicines have already been distributed in evacuation sites by medical personnel to ensure the well-being of the evacuees.

In Manila,   the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration earmarked P2.7 million in financial aid for its 1,418 members affected by the hostilities in Marawi.

According to OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac, active OWWA members will receive P3,000 each, while non-active members will get P1,500 each.

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Alexander Balutan also said he directed their branch in Iligan to extend provide relief goods and medical assistance to the evacuees and families of soldiers fighting in Marawi.

Out to kill

A revolutionary and former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander in Lanao del Sur – Omar Ali – said in an interview that the Maute brothers are “fanatics who want to establish an Islamic State with unified leadership, the Dawlah Islamiya Kilaba.”

Ali, who served as mayor of Marawi for five years and now a “contract expert in technical services” with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), said he spoke with the Maute brothers and tried to persuade them last year to wait for the realization of the federal form of government promised by Duterte but they would no longer listen.

He said the Maute brothers are out to kill “obstructionist” Muslims and non-Muslims, burn churches and mosques that will degrade the Muslim and Catholic leaders who oppose them. –With Lino de la Cruz, Gerry Lee Gorit, Sheila Crisostomo, Cecille Suerte Felipe