Misor peace council to meet on Holy Tuesday

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
 
MISAMIS Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vicente Emano has called for a meeting of the provincial peace and order council tomorrow, Holy Tuesday, to finalize security plans in the province until Easter Sunday.

The peace and order council is also expected to discuss the situation in Sitio Mincamansi, Barangay Banglay in Lagonglong town, Misamis Oriental where military “clearing operations” against Maoist rebels forced villagers to flee and seek refuge at the capitol grounds in March 29.

Close to 200 evacuees have continued to camp out at the Vicente de Lara Park in front of the capitol and are waiting for a fact-finding mission to declare that it is safe for them to return to Mincamansi.

Capt. Joe Patrick Martinez, Camp Evangelista spokesman, said the military counted 90 families living in Mincamansi and 46 of them opted to stay.

Martinez said 37 families fled to the capitol grounds while seven others moved to Kibanban in Balingasag.

“What we can do now is to help the local government in bringing back normalcy of the situation there,” said Martinez.

Fernando Vincent Dy, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, said Martinez’s figures were among those checked by the fact-finding mission organized by the capitol. The team went to Mincamansi over the weekend to investigate and assess the situation there.

Vice Gov. Jose Mari Pelaez, chairman of the provincial board’s committee on peace and order, said his committee would no longer conduct an inquiry into the Mincamansi situation, citing the provincial peace and order council meeting scheduled by Emano tomorrow.

Pelaez said the situation in Mincamansi would be tackled in the council’s meeting.

He however said he would not be able to attend the meeting called by Emano because he would be out of town but would send provincial board member Jeremy Pelaez to represent him.