Renewed fighting in South displaces 370,000

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – About 370,000 residents in South have been displaced by fighting between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to the Red Cross.

Most of the evacuees are from the Maguindanao towns of Mamasapano, Datu Piang and Datu Saudi, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

Jean Daniel Tauxe, ICRC’s Philippine delegation head, said their latest count listed 55,000 displaced persons in different relief sites in Datu Piang alone, up from 35,000 last September.

Tauxe said some poor families in Datu Piang are hosting dozens of evacuees in their homes.       

The ICRC is now building sanitary facilities in evacuation centers and providing support to medical outfits serving evacuees.

Since Aug. 12, the ICRC had distributed food and essential household items to more than 120,000 evacuees.

Tauxe said the ICRC also has a poster campaign in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao to warn the public of the danger of unexploded ordnance.

Evacuees in Maguindanao and surrounding provinces are reluctant to return to their homes as the tour of the multinational force monitoring the ceasefire between the government and the MILF ends on Nov. 30.

Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Monsignor Jose Colin Bagaforo said there is an immediate need for the government and the MILF to discuss whether to extend the term of the International Monitoring Team (IMT).

“The problem, however, is that the government already disbanded the GRP peace panel and the MILF also said recently that it has a plan to disband its peace panel too,” he said.   – John Unson, Lino dela Cruz