Displaced due to the fighting in Marawi City, evacuees queue to get free medicines at the Saguiaran Rural Health Unit, Lanao del Sur on Thursday, October 19. Their common health complaints included skin disease among children due to sanitation issues and upper respiratory tract infection brought by humid atmosphere at the evacuation centers there. (Lorie Ann A. Cascaro / davaotoday.com)
Despite the President’s declaration of Marawi’s liberation, evacuees at Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur, continue to live at evacuation centers while some of them suffer from diseases, especially their children. The Saguiaran Rural Health Unit turned into an emergency hospital that operates 24/7. (Lorie Ann A. Cascaro / davaotoday.com)
Displaced residents in the cleared areas of this city have already returned to their homes, said the deputy commander of Joint Task Force Ranao on Thursday, October 19.
Displaced Marawi City residents at the covered court of Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur on Wednesday, October 18 sell various goods to earn cash and buy their children’s milk and diapers. (Lorie Ann A. Cascaro/davaotoday.com)
The day after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared as liberated the embattled city of Marawi, the city and provincial government units announced they were speeding up the recovery and eventual return of displaced residents in the controlled or cleared areas.
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) seconded the rejection earlier expressed by the Communist Party of the Philippines against the President’s general amnesty offer to the New People’s Army (NPA).
Lumad leaders and children from Mindanao, along with progressive groups, called on today for the continuation of peace talks between the government and communist revolutionaries, saying it is the only solution to their issues.
Hours before President Duterte arrived at the House of the Representatives on a white helicopter on Monday to deliver his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), children from the hinterlands in Mindanao, Southern Philippines, dressed in their tribal clothes, called on government to stop Martial Law at a nationwide protest.
