Government Agencies Go 24/7 to Help Marawi Evacuees

All government agencies involved in disaster response have worked round the clock to attend to the families affected by the Marawi crisis wrought by the clashes between Maute group and government troops that erupted Tuesday afternoon.

Convergence among government agencies in responding to this human-induced disaster is apparent as shown during inter-cluster coordination meeting, which is held daily at the Regional Command Coordination Center after it was set up last May 26 at Barangay Tubod this city.

In a meeting held yesterday, food and non-food items cluster has reported that food packs had been distributed to “home base” evacuees (those living with relatives and friends) as well as those in the evacuation centers.

The city government here has set up three evacuation centers to house internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Marawi City at Iligan City School of Fisheries in Barangay Buruun, Maria Cristina Gym in Barangay Maria Cristina, and at MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology in Barangay Tibanga. However, MSU-IIT only caters to students and faculty from the Mindanao State University in Marawi City.

Based on the monitoring made by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-10, families fleeing Marawi City stayed with their relatives in nearby towns in Lanao del Norte and some went to their relatives in Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon, Cebu and other parts of the country.

As of May 28, some 3,299 home base evacuees are scattered in 10 municipalities of Lanao del Norte, namely, Balo-i, Bacolod, Maigo, Tangcal, Magsaysay, Tubod, Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Pantar, Malungao and Linamon.

In a related development, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) would set up an integrated news team comprising the People’s Television (PTV), Radyo ng Bayan (RNB), Philippine News Agency (PNA), and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) for the “Mindanao Hour” to ensure that correct and appropriate bits of information through press releases and social media platforms are disseminated. Mindanao Hour would complement the commitment and efforts of the government agencies in helping restore normalcy from the Marawi crisis. (FPGumapon)