IDPs FEAR MILF DESPITE CEASEFIRE

Despite a temporary truce in effect in Central Mindanao, some 200,000 villagers who fled their homes are still too scared to return to their homes saying that evacuation centers are the safest haven for them. Their fears persisted even though local officials tried to persuade them that it was safe to go back to their homes in the provinces of Maguindanao and North Cotabato following the declaration of temporary ceasefire.

“Fear and apprehension still hound us”, said Nohalima Sambolawan, an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao where many villagers remain in evacuation centers. “We feel that anytime soon, the MILF will again wreak havoc on our villages, burn our houses and loot our animals. we still We feel we are not safe to go back to our houses and we’d rather stay here in the evacuation center”, she added.

Combined reports and data from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regions 12 and ARMM show that there were about 200,000 people displaced by the fighting that broke out in August 2008 after guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) occupied several villages in this downtrodden Southern Philippines.

Evacuees who flocked several evacuation centers in Maguindanao are complaining that the Moro rebels have been occupying their farmlands, looted livestock animals and burned several houses. “How can we go back to our houses when our safety and security are at stake? The rebels had gotten everything from us…what else is left for us?” said Abdullah Paguital in teary-eyes and trembling voice.

The statements of Nohalina Sambolawan and Abdullah Paguital ae in total contrast to the statement of Atty. Zainudin Malang of the Bangsamoro Lawyers’ Network (BLN) who earlier accused the government forces of emotional, physical and economic abuses against the evacuees in the restive South. Malang made such statement during a conference with the European Union envoys in Cotabato City, recently.

Various local and international aid groups and humanitarian watchers, including local government officials said that apart from their apprehension on the possible outbreak of MILF-initiated carnages against civilian populace, cases of rido-related conflict could seem inevitable to occur. “There will be a renewed fighting between feuding families once they get back to their places and this would eventually lead into another mass displacement”, says an international crisis monitor.

Aside from these reasons, local government officials noted that the evacuees have found a new business venture inside the IDP camp where food rations from different aid groups and local government units are sold at “affordable prices”. "Our assistance is not enough and we are aware of that, but our evacuees took advantage of the situation and made this a part of their daily routine now for whatever it’s worth”, the Municipal Social worker of Mamasapano said in an interview.

The World Food Programme and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) as well as the international and Philippine offices of the Red Cross have helped the government by distributing food, water, and other relief supplies to the evacuees.#