Marawi siege survivors lived off rain water, uncooked rice

By Nora Soriño
Iligan City Bureau Chief

Iligan City — A survivor of the on-going Marawi crisis escaped Wednesday and lived to tell his ordeal.

Juner Gimeno said he and two others stayed put in a space in the roof of a building inside Marawi and lived on raw rice and water to ward off extreme hunger.

He said they were able to stay there because they were able to break into the roof’s  alcove above.  They were at Bliss, Barangay Lilod, he said and they followed the advise of putting up a white flag using a white t-shirt.

He said the three of them decided to escape by themselves, fearful that nobody would come to rescue them. From where they stayed they could see a view of the Maute members a few meters away on the ground, he recalled.

Gimeno said the three of them saw their chance when the enemy began to retreat because of the advancing soldiers.

They went through the back side of said barangay Lilod of Marawi passing through a forested mountain which they scaled and soon were able to reach Municipality of Saguiaran.

They started at past 2:00 pm of Wednesday, he said and it was around 4:00 pm when they reached Saguiaran. There, he said, he could see that there were plenty of people there many of them evacuees.

From Saguiaran, it was relatively easy to reach Iligan, he said. Gimeno said he is from Canaway, this city, while his companions, Cris Bernales is from Tubod while Paopao Alorio is from Santiago.