Why Am I Here???

Crowded makeshift shanties, flies and cockroaches, children whose faces are griming in pain with some of them can not even wash their faces, but their eyes seems to glow in the presence of these foreigners, children, parents and old constituents mostly women are smiling, all smiling because just a few meters away from their makeshifts houses are three (3) ten wheeler trucks loaded with rice, cooking oils and ready –to-eat noodles with canned goods. These are just a few sights I encountered during the recent visit of European Union delegations in different evacuation centers of IDPs in Maguindanao Province.

In the midst of this “Operation Tulong sa Bakwits” lies a big question among the delegation of the EU, “Why the IDPs are still in the evacuation centers”? and why does their numbers increased in-spite of the pronouncements from the MILF hierarchy of their “Suspension of Military Actions” (SUMA) and the AFP of the Suspension of the Military Operations” (SUMO).

In response to these questions, the representatives of the political leadership of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao cited that, the IDPs prefers to stay in the evacuation centers because they (IDPs) can not hold on to the pronouncement of SUMO and SUMA, and that their houses were been burned by the operating government troops in their areas of origin.

This kind of irresponsible media pronouncements/responses coming from our very own local government officials put the AFP and the government in general in bad light, it seems to me that the AFP units deployed in the war-torn areas were responsible for the IDPs not returning home, but if we just analyzed and dig deeper into this problem, there is something fishy about it, first and foremost, most if not all of these evacuees/IDPs were families and relatives of MILF regulars. Since the skirmishes began between the government forces and the MILF, there were no reported burning incident done by the military, however, feuding families who are both elements of 105th and 108th Base Commands of the MILF burned about 10 shanties in the outskirts of Talayan, Maguindanao sometime in the month of March 2008. Secondly, the pouring-out of donations and cash from donor countries seem to-be “sobra-sobra” in which case, some of these relief goods are being sold-out to public markets surrounding the evacuation centers. Thirdly, some politicians are making good money out of these evacuees, kung baga eh pinakikinabangan nila ang presensya ng mga bakwits bakit nila ito pauuwiin? Ano ba yan???

I understand that there are peculiarities in the areas dominated by the MILF however, this question remains in my mind, “Are they used to easy money? Or it is just a part of their culture of being lazy? Letting the government feed them? Or its just a plain and simple manipulation of the rich over the poor inhabitants surrounding the Liguasan Marsh ? ? ?