COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A big number of the internally-displaced people (IDP) from the hostilities in Zamboanga City the past two days are residents of the Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi (Basulta) area, officials said.
Juni Ilimin, undersecretary of the local government department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said some of the evacuees are children of Moro families from the ARMM’s island provinces who are either studying, or working in Zamboanga City.
Ilimin said a truckload of relief supplies sent by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman from Cotabato City Tuesday was turned over to the crisis management committee led by Zamboanga City Mayor Isabelle Climaco.
"The people affected by the hostilities are in a very pitiful situation. We can only pray and hope the hostilities will end soon," Ilimin told The Star via mobile phone from Zamboanga City.
Ilimin said efforts by religious leaders and community elders, from the Basulta area’s Yakan, Tausog and Samah communities, to convince the MNLF forces that laid siege on several villages in Zamboanga City to leave the populated areas have been fruitless.
Employees of the ARMM’s social welfare, health, and local government departments have been dispatched to help Climaco’s office attend to the needs of evacuees.
Laisa Alamia, the ARMM’s regional executive secretary, said the region’s Task Force Basulta has been coordinating with Climaco’s office.
Alamia said the Hataman administration is concerned with the situation in Zamboanga City, which is a major trading center for the local communities in the ARMM’s Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi island provinces.
Alamia said there is a big number of Moro high school and college students from the three provinces studying in various schools in the city.