Maranaos boo Sona

By NITZ ARANCON,
LITO RULONA
and ANJANETTE VILLAMOR
Correspondents

“WE we’re wrong in supporting Duterte.”

In tears, Haja Malika Batara yesterday poured her heart out as she expressed her dismay over what she said was President Duterte’s failure to articulate exactly what the government would do to end the sufferings of Maranaos badly affected by the Marawi crisis during his State-on-the-Nation Address on Monday.

Batara, a Maranao who is the president of the Centralized Carmen Market Vendors’ Association here, said Duterte’s second Sona was meaningless to Maranaos displaced as a result of the fightings between government and Maute Group forces.

Batara said she and other Maranaos had expected Duterte to go beyond motherhood statements and elaborate the government’s plans for the future of Maranaos.

She called Duterte’s Sona “good for nothing” on the part of Maranaos who suffered as a result of the Maute Group’s attacks and the aerial bombings carried out by the military in Marawi.

“Si President Duterte itinuring namin na aming kapamilya. Siya lang ang kandidato pagka-presidente na aming sinuportahan dahil sa akala namin, siya lang ang makakapagbigay buhay sa aming mga Muslim. Pero nagkamali kami sa aming akala kasi pinayagan niya ang mga sundalo na bombahin ang aming mga bahay sa Marawi. Eh, di ang resulta nawala lahat ang aming pinagpawisan,” Batara said.

She said most Maranaos have no problems with the Duterte going after the Maute Group.

Batara said the Maute Group fighters were also considered enemies of Maranaos but “sana hindi nila binomba ang Marawi.”

At Villa Candida subdivision in Bulua alone where many sought refuge since May, Maranao evacuees called on Duterte to put an end to the Marawi conflict as soon as possible.

There, some two thousand Maranaos or about 400 families, who fled strife-torn Marawi, are living in cramped houses, said barangay chairman Al Legaspi.

Mindanao State University student Salma Pangandaman, who was with five other students helping in the distribution of relief goods at an evacuation center in Bulua, said she was worried about how the Marawi crisis would affect the country’s future.

“If we want the country to develop, then the ‘war’ in Marawi has to stop,” Pangandaman said.

She said the stateun MSU has remained a safe haven in Marawi but all business establishments there, including the neighborhood stores, have been wrecked.

Maranao evacuee Micko Mamongcara said houses in the predominantly Muslim city were bombed and looted.

He said his family fled to this city to seek the help of their relatives.

Adding insult to injury is the way some people in the city have been treating Maranao evacuees, adding that they felt “discrimination.”

Mamongcara said his family was rejected when they tried to rent an apartment. He said that when they asked why, they were supposedly told, “Muslim man mo.”

Activist Aida Ibrahim, convenor of Tindeg Ranao, said her group would continue organizing and taking part in prootests until Duterte gives Maranao evacuees some importance.

Ibrahim said those displaced wanted to return to Marawi and rebuild but could not because of the ongoing bombings.

Maranao lawyer Ganie Abubacar, a former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in Lanao del Sur, warned of a growing resentment towards the military because Maranaos could not return even to their hometowns.

Abubacar said he feared that such resentment could breed other anti-government groups.

“Our people have accepted that Marawi City is already lost. They have nothing to go back to in Marawi City. It is now useless to go back to Marawi City. What they are planning to do is to go back to their original places… the municipalities in Lanao. But if the military has another plan, and would still be strict [on them], it would result in hatred,” Abubacar told a news conference here on Sunday.

Abubacar said the government should review the history of Moro armed struggle in the country. Such history, he said, would show that “we will annihilate you when our pro-people demands are not granted by the government.”

He added: “Noong una, kris lang ang armas namin pero ngayon medyo marami na ang high-powered firearms.”

Abubacar also criticized the May 23 declaration and subsequent extension of martial law in Mindanao, saying there was “no valid and compelling reason” for it.

He said many Maranaos were hurt, offended and were upset with martial law even as he blamed it for what he called as an “unprecedented crisis.”

“Many civilians, soldiers and terrorists who were killed in Lanao del Sur. And many have gone mad now because they lost properties, and they have lost their incomes,” Abubacar said.

He said one of his relatives alone lost some P70 million, and she has been asking that her family be allowed to check whatever is left of her property.