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First Posted on Inside Mindanao (www.insidemindanao.com) on August 22, 2008
We are still afraid to go home—Evacuees
By Bong S. Sarmiento
PIKIT, NORTH COTABATO—Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. –Robert Frost.
In Pikit, a town that has seen four major armed–conflicts since the late 1990s and early 2000s, thousands of homes in far–flung villages still await their owners, although the volleys of gun fire and bomb explosions weeks before have essentially "fallen silent."
The uncertain security situation has kept about a fourth of the town's 90,000 population still cramped in 29 evacuation centers scattered across the town.
In the village of Baliki in the neighboring town of Midsayap, a cat could be the summary of that innate human feeling to relish the warmth of a home.
At a totally burned house, one of the 113 others that reflects the many visible effects of the recently concluded fierce skirmishes between the military and the yet to be confirmed rebel group, this reporter and three other companions saw the cat last Sunday.
It was apparently left earlier by its owners in their haste to leave for fear of being caught in the crossfire. Obviously hungry for food, it seemed the cat was more in need of the care of a human being since right after we moved closer to document armed–conflict's brutal leftovers; the animal brushed its skin to my feet.
But more difficult is to live in the evacuation center, a condition too very far away from the comforts of the home though how small their huts could be.
"Many sleep in the cold pavement using only cartons," said Mila Grace Nabos, a 33–year old mother of three school–aged children, at the gymnasium of the Pikit Catholic parish where about 250 families sought refuge.
Nabos came from conflict–torn Barangay Tapodoc in the neighboring town of Aleosan, which along with Midsayap municipality was also ravaged by the recent armed–conflict in the province, but sought solace here due to accessibility.
"We' re still terrified to go home," she told this reporter, a few feet from where an infant sleeps in a hammock while the mother slumbers in the concrete floor covered by a cardboard box.
"Aside from continued food assistance, what we really need are sleeping mats, mosquito nets and blankets," Nabos added, lamenting they were only able to bring two sets of shirts for their children as they hastily left their village with the unexpected entry of the yet to be confirmed rebel group forces there.
Aid, in food and non–food items from several domestic and foreign non–government organizations, have arrived in the affected towns of North Cotabato, which also included Libungan and Pigkawayan municipalities.
One of those who immediately rushed to the conflict zones was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which deployed nearly a dozen foreign expatriates to the area.
The team has distributed food items to at least 6,700 families in the province, said Juan Fuertes, ICRC head of sub–delegation to Mindanao, lamenting the disrupted schooling of children in these areas.
"It is not just about a person hit by a bullet, but those of deprived of their education [because school was disrupted by the conflict]. Conflict makes people suffer," Fuertes said.
More than 100,000 individuals have been displaced at the height of the latest armed–conflict but by August 15, it went down to 59,552 people or 12,415 families, according to records of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.
Fuertes said internally displaced persons in evacuation centers 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.
On the other hand, the World Food Program of the United Nations has initially provided 400 tons of rice for the evacuees, at 25 kilograms to each family for a month's ration.
But not all of these help have sufficiently served the displaced individuals, many of whom continue to plead for assistance.
Alex Mantawil, 29, a father of six from Macabual in Pikit and staying at the unfinished Buisan warehouse evacuation center in Pikit, confirmed that some refugees have not received sleeping mats, mosquito nets and blankets.
"This despite our names on the list," he lamented, adding he is still afraid to bring back his family to their village because of the uneasy peace condition.
Outside the Buisan warehouse, a "tent city" has decorated the landscape as farm animals like chickens, goats, carabaos, cows and horses brought by the evacuees when they fled dot the nearby grassland.
Samira Abas, 20 and mother of three, settled on a cart, which is about 2x4 meters, covered by a tent, where next to it is a makeshift wooden structure still without a cover.
"We bought the tent at the market so the children and our belongings would not get wet when there would be rain. My husband would sleep outside our covered cart because it could not longer accommodate him," Abas said.
"We really want to go home but we are afraid because the situation is still dangerous," she said.
In response to the complaints of the evacuees that some did not received assistance, Yusop Usman, a Pikit social worker at the Buisan evacuation center, said that aid groups only asked for the master list of the refugees.
"They ran the relief operations themselves," he said, essentially confirming that there is lack of coordination among groups giving relief that resulted on overlapping or under serving of the refugees' needs.
Until this time, there is still no indication that evacuation centers would run out of people in the next several days, despite the assurance issued by the local police command, because many evacuees still have fears of going home.
Last Sunday, Senior Inspector Elias Dandan, the local police chief, said it is "already safe to return home."
He also apologized to residents for their being affected by "a small conflict that resulted in a massive evacuation."
Nancy Macagba, from the village of Kolambog, does not want to take risk despite the assurances of Dandan, on the thought of the safety of her five young children.
"Our four–hectare farm of corn and coconut is waiting but our village is a hot spot. We are still afraid to go home," the 39–year old mother said.
She said there is really no place like home, blaming the latest armed–conflict for keeping them away from their ordinary routines in the household and in the farms.
"How I wish peace will reign in our midst. We are tired of getting displaced," Macagba said.
END