Waiting Game for North Cotabato Refugees

Humanitarian aid

Aid, in the form of food and non-food items from several national and international groups and non-government organizations, have arrived in the affected towns of North Cotabato including the municipalities of Libungan and Pigkawayan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was one of the first organizations to respond rushing nearly a dozen foreign expatriates and supplies to the area.

At the time of writing, the team had distributed food items to at least 6,700 families in the province, according to Juan Fuertes, ICRC head of the sub-delegation to Mindanao.

“It is not just about a person hit by a bullet, but those of deprived of their education because schools have been disrupted by the fighting. Conflict makes people suffer,” Fuertes told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.

More than 100,000 individuals have been displaced at the height of the latest armed encounter between government and MILF forces but by August 15, it went down to 59,552 people or 12,415 families, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

Fuertes added that internally displaced persons in evacuation centers now feared the outbreak of disease due to poor sanitation facilities.

“We are building water reservoirs and distributing hygiene kits, aside from mattresses and mosquito nets,” he said.

The World Food Program of the United Nations has meantime so far provided 400 tons of rice for the evacuees. Each family has been given 25 kilograms to last them a month.

But not all evacuees have received the help or supplies they need.

Alex Mantawil, 29, a father of six from Macabual village in Pikit and staying at the unfinished Buisan warehouse evacuation center in Pikit, confirmed that many refugees have not received sleeping mats, mosquito nets and blankets.

“This despite our names on the list,” he complained, adding that he remained afraid to try and head home because of the security situation.