MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Non-Muslim ethnic Teduray villagers in a secluded barangay in Ampatuan town never ever thought government medics will one day come to them until a team arrived to serve them free.
Close to a thousand Teduray and Ilonggo settlers in Sitio Rizal in Barangay Kauran in Ampatuan, Maguindanao benefitted from the October 30 medical-dental mission of the Maguindanao provincial government, carried out with the help of units of the Army’s 601st Brigade.
“We are thankful to the provincial government of Maguindanao for coming to Sitio Rizal to serve the poor and needy,” a Teduray mother of six, Edeng Rendah, said in Filipino.
Teduray peasant Kedew Sisil, 40, said they thought all along a medical-dental team would never ever visit their enclave until a contingent from the office of Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and Army medics arrived, bringing with them boxes of medicines and food provisions they dispersed to children.
“And they served our people free,” he said in the vernacular.
Provincial budget officer Lynette Estandarte, concurrent chief of the Maguindanao emergency response team, said they treated hundreds of children afflicted with respiratory illnesses during their day-long medical mission at Sitio Rizal, where there are hundreds of Teduray families.
“There were many adult dental and medical patients that benefitted from the activity too,” Estandarte said.
The activity is part of a continuing humanitarian program of Mangudadatu for marginalized sectors in the province under his administration’s “Serbisyong Totoo” good governance initiative.
The office of Mangudadatu had extended free medical and dental services to 31,213 Muslim, Christian and Lumad residents in the province in the past three years.