Fire victims in Sinsuat town get relief goods

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - The provincial government on Friday dispersed initial relief supplies to more than a hundred families left homeless by a conflagration that razed an entire village in Datu Odin Sinsuat town last Wednesday.

Lynette Estandarte, chief provincial budget officer, said Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu has allocated one sack of rice for each of the displaced family, now housed in makeshift evacuation sites in public school campuses nearby.

Estandarte said the relief packages for the evacuees also include blankets, mosquito nets, and water containers.

Estandarte said Mangudadatu has asjed the police and military to help  in the distribution of the relief goods to the fire victims.

Three villagers were killed in the fire that razed the victims’ village in Lower Taviran in Datu Odin Sinsuat town at dawn Wednesday.

Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who is ARMM’s concurrent social welfare secretary, said some 90 percent of the more than 100 dislocated families were unable to save any of their belongings from the fire.

A relief team led by Lucman had earlier provided the fire victims with food supplies.