Evacuees want to go home next week

By SHIELA MAE BUTLIG
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents

THE evacuees who have camped out at the capitol grounds are hoping to return to their homes in Lagonglong town, Misamis Oriental next week or after the Holy Week.

Their decision would depend on the results of a fact-finding mission to Sitio Mincamansi, Barangay Banglay in Lagonglong starting today.

Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano confirmed that a team would carry out the fact-finding mission in Lagonglong today.

The team would be led by Provincial  Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief Fernando Vincent Dy and would likely include Iglesia Filipina Independiente Bishop Felixberto Calang, human rights  lawyer Beverly Musni, and three representatives of the evacuees.

Emano instructed Dy to coordinate with Lagonglong Mayor Jay Albert Puertas, Banglay barangay chairman Honifuerte Redondo, and concerned groups.

The evacuees said they would return home if the fact-finding mission would assure them that it is already safe for them to go home.

The number of evacuees from Lagonglong who sought refuge at the capitol grounds has risen to 180 since last week.

Emano said the team would check the claims made by Lt. Col. Francis Carandang, 58th IB commander, and see if the reported skirmishes between soldiers and rebels resulted in damages to agriculture in the village.

Carandang has claimed that there was no more soldier in Mincamansi.

“Temporary wala na ang operation namin dun sa area,” Carandang said.

But Carandang said soldiers would be sent back to Mincamansi if the military finds out that the New People’s Army would pose threats in the area again.

“From time to time, babalikan namin ng operation yung area. Pag mayroong enemy monitored  activities basi sa directive ng aming  higher headquarters,” he said.

Carandang said the evacuees at the capitol could return to Mincamansi.

“Anytime naman pwede na sila bumalik,  hinhi naming gusto na mag-bakwit sila. We are after of the armed group, the NPA  terrorists, not the civilians,” Carandang said.

He said the military was ready to help the evacuees return to their village.

Tribal chieftain Reynaldo Ayuma, chairman of the Tagtabolon Higaonon Tribes Association, said he would join the team in order to find out if soldiers from the Army’s 58th Infantry Battalion have already left.

He said while the villagers don’t mind if soldiers would come to their village from time to time, they don’t want them staying because that would mean bringing skirmishes in Mincamansi.

“OK ra muadto sila sa isa ka semana, basta mulabay lang sila,” Ayuma said.

Ayuma said the evacuees were eager to return home, citing their sorry state at the capitol grounds.

He said at least four evacuees, all children, fell sick at the capitol grounds and had to be rushed to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) due to fever and stomachaches.

“Unta makauli nami sa dili pa mag semana santa,” said Ayuma.

Sarisa Acosta, spokesperson of the Tagtabulon Higaonon Tribes Association, said the villagers fled because soldiers occupied their village, including a school and a church in Mincamansi. She said they didn’t want that to happen again.

Acosta said the evacuees would want to leave the capitol grounds and go home on Monday, if possible, pointing out that the park has been home to them for over a week already.

“Gusto na  gyud mi mopa-uli didto sa amo kay sa among pagpoyo  dinhi, nakadungog pa kamig sakit nga estorya, nga naghugaw-hugaw ra kuno mi dinhi,” she said.