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Last of two parts
MARAWI City — May 27, 2017 was the last time Noraimen Radia saw her parents, Albasher and Saada Grande Radia.
She and nine of her siblings looked for them in evacuation centers and in hospitals but did not find them.
From a very comfortable life before the war — their parents were into rice milling and had a 38-door apartment for rent at P3,500 per door — the Radia children — the eldest at 32 and the youngest at 8, joined thousands of other displaced Meranaws who have been, in the words of Dr. Macapado Muslim, former president of the Mindanao State University, “pauperized.”
“The devastation and dislocations affected not only the great majority of poor families in Marawi City but also the rich ones comprising of M’ranaw businessmen based in Marawi and other areas outside Lanao del Sur including Metro Manila, professionals and government officials and workers, etc. In other words, the war has pauperized many of the growing number of M’ranaw middle-class families, and impoverished further the great majority who are poor,” Muslim said in a policy paper sent to President Duterte in early November.
The Radia siblings visited their village during the “Kambisita sa MAA” (most affected area) on April 24, 25 and 26, and found their two-story house destroyed by fire. They found their father’s motorcycle, also burnt, but no trace of their parents.
Contacting their parents via mobile phone was not possible, they said, because by Day 2, “phones had low battery levels as there was no electricity, no signal.”
“Until now we still contact our father’s number. No response. His SIM card may have been burned already,” Najmah said.
The sisters hope they would be assisted in their search for their missing parents.
Noraimen said three of their siblings had to stop school to allow their sister Nor-ain to finish her nursing course.
If she had the chance to meet with Duterte, Noraimen said she would ask him for employment for her elder siblings, scholarship for her and three other siblings so they can return to school, that they be given a permanent shelter because they’ve been moving from one relative’s house to another.
Noraimen also hopes they can also be given an allowance “kahit kaunti” for projects in school especially when classes begin in June, as well as capital to start a business.
She reiterated her proposal to have tarpaulins showing photographs of missing persons, and hopes somebody helps them raise P16,000 so her sister who graduated from her nursing course last May 13, can pay off that debt, inclusive of graduation fees, that she owes her school in Iligan. Its payment will allow her to get her transcript of records and apply for the board exams.
Noiramen says their parents are missing but she also feels that giving attention to relatives who have missing loved ones is “missing” in the government’s recovery program.
Jane Marygold Perez of the Ranao Rescue Team, a teacher and mother of four, has taken on looking for the missing as her group’s and her personal crusade.
She borrowed — and continues to borrow — money for transporation, goes around evacuation centers, posts on social media and in the communities she visits, asks who have relatives who remain missing. Recently she teamed up with the Scene of the Crime Operatives and brought them to evacuation centers and other communities to conduct DNA testing in case the test results match with those taken from skeletal remains retrieved from Ground Zero.
Perez said she compiled a list of over 100 but is now down to 50 as some missing persons have been reunited with their loved ones.
Rinante’s parents in Zamboanga del Sur have been informed by hostage survivors that he was killed in the war zone but Rechel says her parents continue to believe he is still alive. Rechel wants her parents to undergo DNA testing but says the test is very expensive and they cannot afford it.
Perez says DNA testing for relatives of the missing in Marawi is free. But Rechel says her parents have no money for transportation to avail of the free testing.
Rinante earned P3,000 a month in Marawi, and sent P1,500 to P2,000 to his parents to help in the expenses at home and the education of his siblings.
Fatimah says she has not gone through a DNA testing.
Noraimen and Najmah recently had their DNA test, facilitated by Perez. The sisters carry with them printouts of a photograph of their parents, taken during the Ramadan. It is their second Ramadan without them.
“We pray they were able to leave Marawi, that they found their way to a remote village and are in trauma,” the sisters said. (carolyn o. arguillas of mindanews)

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