Moro medics from ARMM to join humanitarian efforts in Leyte

COTABATO CITY - The first batch of Moro medics and rehabilitation experts from the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance Relief Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao left for Leyte Thursday to help in the rehabilitation of thousands affected by the Typhoon Yolanda onslaught.

Laisa Alamia, regional executive secretary, said the group led by physician Pancho Cruz, will bring with them thousands of food packs, medicines and other non-food relief supplies for distribution to residents of Tolosa town in Leyte.

Cruz, a senior official of the Department of Health-ARMM, will help Alamia oversee the relief mission, which involves Moro relief and medical workers from across the autonomous region.

"The group was assigned by the national central office of DOH to Tolosa, Leyte," Alamia said.

Alamia said the relief mission is supported by provincial health offices in the autonomous region and the ARMM’s social welfare department.

"Members of the team also brought with them medical instruments to enable them to perform minor surgeries. The team will operate in close coordination with national central office of DOH," Alamia pointed out.

The HEART contingent dispatched to the Visayas is composed of workers who served thousands of evacuees during the height of the three-week siege in several barangays last September by followers of Nur Misuari.

Alamia said the office of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman will monitor on a round-the-clock basis the relief operation of HEART in Leyte.

Hataman exercises ministerial control over HEART, which is an inter-agency organization activated early this year as a special contingent focused on addressing disaster and emergency situations.

The ARMM’s Bureau of Fire Protection had earlier sent dozens of firemen trained in rescue and relief missions to Tacloban City.