In Maguindanao town, a glimpse of total war

A COVERED court in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao (top photo) turns into an evacuation center for families fleeing gun battles, initially between rival Moro groups, in villages on the boundary of Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces. Inside the evacuation center (left photo), families bring water containers, food and other belongings that they can carry with them.

A quick look at the thousands of people in the 10-hectare local government compound here could be a preview of what would happen to innocent civilians if an all-out war were declared against Moro guerrillas in Mindanao, as some sectors want.

It is a humanitarian crisis on a small scale.

In the town’s covered court, Bai Noraida Kamensa, 37, of Barangay Kalbugan said her family’s situation was deplorable.

“Life here is miserable. I never dreamed of being here. We can hardly sleep; the place is so hot. We are not productive here. We have no income. If we were back home, food would not be a problem,” Kamensa said.

Baikong Abdullah Balao, 35, also from Barangay Kalbugan and a mother of four, said “life here is like hell.”

“We should not be here, but if we did not leave our homes, we might die there…. Here, we might die as well if we stayed here longer. The place is full of mosquitoes. I’m scared of dengue,” Balao said, her voice cracking.

Everyone flees

Balao, holding a sick child, said she would have preferred to stay with relatives. “But my relatives are evacuees, too. Sadly, I have no options,” she said.

Sulja Malingco, 53, a resident of Barangay Bago Inged, said she and her family brought with them seven goats even if they had to cross rivers on a motorboat.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARMM-HEART

“If we left our animals, others might take them, thus we brought them here,” she said, adding that her husband returned to Bago Inged to retrieve the family’s cow.

Beside Malingco were her two grandchildren, eating rice and dried fish.

A 4-by-8-meter blue tarpaulin, which serves as flooring, is now home to the Malingco family. On that piece of tarpaulin are their belongings—a container filled with water, sacks of clothes and dilapidated luggage.

About two meters away is Malingco’s other grandchild sleeping on a “malong” hammock.

“The word ‘bakwit’ (evacuees) has not been in our vocabulary the past 12 years,” said Sammy Abdul, chair of Barangay Kalbugan. “We have not been ejected from our place since the 2003 war in Buliok complex; now here we are again,” he said.

“To the warring MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters), please have mercy on your people. Some of them are even your relatives by blood or by affinity,” Abdul said.

Fear

Tahira Kalantongan, disaster officer of Pikit town also in Maguindanao province, said officials could not stop people from leaving their homes even if they were far from the conflict areas.

“They know better. They have been in this situation in the past. Clearly, they do not want to be in the middle of the fire fight because they believe bullets don’t choose what or who to hit,” Kalantongan said.

Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Edralin, 7th Infantry Battalion chief, said the evacuation in Pagalungan and Pikit was an indication of a bigger problem besetting interior communities.

“The people felt security threats in their communities so they fled,” he told reporters.

Kagi Tony Sultan, 49, resident of Barangay Kalbugan, said he heard gunshots in the adjacent village of Kabasalan in Pikit on Saturday evening (Feb. 14).

“We often hear gunshots in our village or nearby communities, and I thought last Saturday’s fighting was just another unfolding family feud,” he said.

On Sunday, Sultan and his wife were preparing to harvest palay when the exchange of gunfire appeared to be getting closer to their community.

“We had already harvested some palay but our village officials told us to leave, and we left in a hurry. We had no choice but to leave as everybody was doing the same,” Sultan said.

No more room

Senior Inspector Blayne Lomas-e, Pagalungan police chief, said no civilian was hurt in the armed conflict in Barangay Kalbugan.

Almazen Kadil, 24, married and a mother of two, was not as lucky when they arrived in the evacuation center late on Feb. 15.

“We prefer to be here, Sir. It’s crowded in the gym,” Kadil said, pointing to the covered court. Kadil’s family and several other evacuees stay outside the covered court—in a makeshift shelter covered by a tarpaulin.

“Why we are here is difficult to accept. We have nothing to do with their conflict and yet we are suffering,” she said as she wiped her tears.

“We prefer a better evacuation site but there is none. Here, the excruciating heat is punishing and the cold of the night is agonizing,” Kadil said.

Beside her makeshift “home” are three goats and a carabao tied to a tree that Kadil said were her family’s “only wealth.”

This is not all-out war yet.

Taste of war

Military and MILF officials claimed that a “family feud” involving Commander Jack Abbas of the MILF and Kagi Karialan of the BIFF triggered skirmishes that sent civilians fleeing their homes.

An MILF commander and four others were killed in the fighting. The BIFF said it suffered two casualties.

Disaster officials said up to 20,000 individuals had been displaced by the fighting that broke out three weeks after 44 police commandos were killed in a faulty exit plan of an operation to get international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan.”

The death of the police commandos prompted some sectors to call on government to declare an all-out war against the Moro rebels.

Yesterday, the military started bombarding BIFF positions. And this is not all-out war yet. Imagine the scene in the town’s government compound multiplied dozens of times.