Photographs of missing persons provided by Task Force Ranao Rescue Team that is searching for the casualties of the Marawi siege. (photo by froilan gallardo)
- Advertisement -

By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent
with NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

ILIGAN City — In one of the small apartments here, Hashima Mohammed Salim met with members of her clan who lost family members in the fighting in Marawi City.

- Advertisement -

She and her family have to decide quickly: They only have a small mount of money left and food assistance from government aid agencies are getting scarcer every week.

Salim said it did not take long for her family to decide what option to take.

She said her family decided to migrate to Manila to find jobs and businesses while she stayed in Iligan to continue to search for their missing relatives.

“It is very sad to come up with a decision that will break up my family and for me to stay,” the 29-year old Hashima said.

Hashima said her family decided to let her stay because she was the most outspoken and educated.

She said fearing martial law, many in her family are scared to meet government officials or face news reporters with their cameras.

“They tasked me to be the one to talk to you,” Hashima said.

Upon instructions from her family, Hashima did not divulge the identities of her relatives who have gone missing after the IS-Maute gunmen and government troops started clashing in Marawi exactly one year ago today.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said at least 100 people are still missing almost seven months after President Duterte declared Marawi City “liberated” from the terrorists on Nov. 17, 2017.

“But we believe there are more,” said Camilla Malteuci, head of the ICRC Protection Team in the Philippines.

Other government agencies like the Lanao del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office also placed the number of the missing at 11 people.

Duyog Marawi, an NGO that coordinates the rehabilitation efforts of the Roman Catholic Church, placed the number slightly lower at 70 people still missing.

Duyog Marawi head Rey Barnido said their estimate is lower because they concentrated their efforts on the Christian minorities in Marawi city.

“If we find a witness who will say he or she saw that missing person was gunned down, we immediately change the status to dead and remove him from the missing list,” Barnido explained.

Christians are a minority in the predominantly Muslim Marawi, about five-percent of the city’s 200,000 population.

Many find work in Marawi City as laborers, carpenters and store helpers. Most found themselves trapped when the IS-Maute terrorists and government troops fought last year.

For the Muslims who were also listed as missing like the family members of Salim, Task Force Ranao Rescue Team, an NGO, also placed the number of missing people at around 80.

Samira Gutoc Tomawis, a local Marawi leader, said they find it difficult in locating the missing because family members refused to have their DNA taken by the police.

Zia Alonto Adiong, former head of the defunct Marawi Crisis Committee, said DNA tests taken on the first 150 cadavers buried at the Maqbara cemetery in Barangay Papandayan, Marawi City did not match any of the relatives.

Adiong said the remains did not match any of the dental records provided by relatives.

“It would be difficult to find the missing a year after. We have been telling the relatives to presume that their loved ones are already dead,” Alonto said.

Alonto said the Lanao del Sur provincial disaster management office have also stopped efforts to search the missing and turned their records to the Department of Interior and Local Government’s management of the dead and the missing department.

“It will be up to the DILG to reactivate the search. We will only help and support them,” he said.

Relief Aid

Meanwhile, thousands of pesos worth of relief goods are scheduled to be distributed today for some 100 families displaced by the 2017 clashes in Marawi.

The relief aid worth some P400 thousand, to be delivered by Beebeelee.com, would be sent to Marawi, and Iligan    where many displaced families have sought refuge.

Beebeelee.com managing director and community enablement adviser Romeo dela Cruz, the “1 box 1 Marawi” program was made possible with the help of  the Rotary clubs of Makati and Parañaque, Bughaw Digital, Exempli Gratia, Gaisano-Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, and the Quick Reliable Services.

The relief goods include food, hygiene, sports and children’s kits, among others.

“This is the kind of innovative way of helping the community in Marawi city who were displaced by a man-made disaster… due to war,” said dela  Cruz.

Disclaimer

Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.

- Advertisement -