90,000 remain in evacuation centers

COTABATO CITY—Five days after the military lifted its massive crackdown on Moro breakaway rebels in Maguindanao province, many people who sought shelter in evacuation centers still refuse to return home for fear of fresh fighting.

“It is safer here for now, but last night we heard gun bursts and fighting is still possible to occur again,” said Salemah Lambuan, 38, who decided to remain “for a few more days” in a temporary shelter in Barangay (village) Tambunan in Talayan town, Maguindanao.

“We are observing the situation in our communities,” said Lambuan, who is three months pregnant. “If we think it is safe, off we go.”

More than 90,000 people, formally called “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) are not yet returning home from 79 evacuation centers in Maguindanao. The number had reached 120,000 after the military began its pursuit of members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on April 5.

The BIFF, which split from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), was among the armed groups that clashed with police commandos of the Special Action Force (SAF) while on a mission to take down Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” in Mamasapano town, also in Maguindanao, on Jan. 25.

Forty-four SAF members, 17 MILF rebels and at least three civilians were killed during the fighting, putting in doubt the early passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, which provided a governing mechanism for autonomous rule for a Bangsamoro entity in Mindanao.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Maguindanao, about 25,000 evacuees already left for home.

“Soldiers and military hardware are still visible,” said Andol Tulon, 35, another evacuee in Tambunan. “For us, this is an indication that war is still inevitable.”

Lambuan, who also lives in Nunangan, said she and the other evacuees heard gunshots from their shelter in Tambunan at the center of Talayan town overlooking the Agusan marshland. “It appears there was a brief fighting there,” she said, pointing north where her village is.

Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, speaking for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said no major skirmishes had erupted since March 30 when Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang visited Maguindanao and announced the termination of law enforcement operations against the Moro rebels.

Abu Misri Mama, a spokesperson of the BIFF, said his group attacked an Army position in Barangay Muslim in Guindulungan. The fighting lasted for only about 10 minutes, he said.

“We suffered no casualty, I don’t know on the government side,” Mama told the Inquirer.

Tulon’s family and other villagers go back to their houses in Nunangan, Guindulungan, during the day but return to the evacuation sites at night.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding, regional secretary of the Department of Health in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said health providers had treated 15,138 people who got sick while in the evacuation centers. Of this number, a total of 3,543 were aged 5 years and below, while 11,595 were over 5 years.

Only one of the more than 120,000 IDPs has died due to dehydration. Two civilians, aged 18 and 62 years old, were wounded by stray bullets.

Sinolinding said the provincial health office and its field workers are on standby 24/7 to attend to the needs of the remaining evacuees.

Relief operations continue as more aid packages have arrived as a result of the “Tabang Sibilyan” campaign, said lawyer Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary and chief of ARMM’s humanitarian arm. She cited Johnson & Johnson-Philippines for donating 250 cases of hygiene products amounting to P143,000.

“Today,” Tulon said, “I stayed because we heard relief goods will be distributed.”