DAVAO CITY – A group of Filipino-American missionaries from the United States initiated a medical mission for the indigenous peoples presently housed in the evacuation center in a church compound here since Sunday.
Groups including the Fil-Am Healthcare Workers Association (FAWA) and the Kapit Bisig Kabataan Network, both of which are based in California, are part of the International Solidarity Mission to Mindanao this month.
From more than 600 evacuees, 365 IPs from Talaingod and Bukidnon were given medical attention by the missionaries in partnership with Father Pops Tentorio Foundation.
Marietta Braganza, who has been working as a critical care nurse in California for 33 years, observed that the IP children and adults show signs of stress.
“From what we see in terms of their symptoms they have low immunity, they complain about difficulties in sleeping and body aches,” Braganza said.
She said that the stress is a reaction to the unnatural environment of the evacuation center from their communities.
“I can’t imagine what their worries are from the day to day basis and worrying about what’s going on in their community (which they left),” she said.
More than 200 international delegates from 25 countries attended the ISM in 2013. 33 Fil-Ams and Latin Americans visited Typhoon-Pablo affected areas in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental to look into human rights conditions in these villages and the impact of large-scale mining.
In 2014, the ISM gathered 40 Fil-Ams, European-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Korean-Americans, among other nationalities.
Braganza said that she was part of two previous ISMs where they “brought to light the lack of service in health, education and economic support from the government.”
“When I personally saw the situation of the IPs in Sitios Tibucag (in 2013) and Nasilaban (in 2014) in Talaingod, I call it ‘unserved’,” she said.
She said this year’s ISM “is totally different”.
“The IPs owned the setting during the two previous ISM. They are free to roam wherever they want to. They control the situation,” she said adding that this year’s setting of the IPs in an evacuation center makes a lot of difference in their situation.
“They do farming then and raised their families in peace,” she said.
“They were just living peacefully and what little assistance they got, as far as I knew, were from non-government organizations,” said Braganza.
“The roads were not even roads, so the government was lacking in building them infrastructures. Whatever buildings there were, they built on their own. Whatever schools there was, they built on their own,” she said adding that these were not government entities.
“It was all on their own with the help of NGOs,” said Braganza.
Braganza said aside from stress, the IPs in Haran have upper-respiratory infection, urinary tract infections, and pneumonia.
Nurses from the Father Pops Tentorio Foundation said most of the evacuees have gastric problems because they are not used with the diet they have in the evacuation center.
“In their communities they seldom eat rice, but here in the evacuation center they eat rice every day and get three meals a day,” said Marion Solis, a volunteer nurse.
“They are not used to this and this is not their normal diet,” said Asha Apat, who is in-charge of the foundation’s medical team.
Bonbon, a 15-year-old evacuee from Bukidnon, said “sometimes we only eat twice a day in our community.”
Apat also said that the situation in the evacuation area where the place is too crowded makes diseases spread faster.
Last July 23, members of the 911 and the Department of Social Welfare and Development were also able to give medical services to the evacuees after the commotion of the IPs and their support groups with the policemen from the Police Regional Office 11 and Davao City Police Office.
The operation of the police targeted to “rescue” the IPs and return them to their communities.
But the IPs refused until the military pulls out from their areas.
Braganza said their group are organizing fund-raising activities for the medicines and school supplies for the children.
However, she said that “this is not enough”.
“The government has the responsibility to provide just the basic services to its citizens and the IPs are after all citizens of the Philippines,” Braganza said.
“They deserve respect, dignity and all the services that every citizens get,” she said.
Sheena Duazo, spokesperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and one of the support groups of the evacuees, said the government agencies should double its efforts to resolve the root cause of the IP evacuation.
“Now that they are already stressed and their health condition is greatly affected by their situation, we urge the government to immediately resolve the militarization issue and the Alamara-recruitment which are the primary reasons why they are here,” Duazo said.
Duazo also said that during their dialogue with the DSWD after the July 23 incident, they asked the agency about the services that they could provide the evacuees.
“But they said the budget is already distributed to the local government units of the IPs and that they should go home to avail it,” said Duazo.
“How can they get their health services when they are afraid to go back to their communities because they fear for their lives?” she said.
The medical mission will last until Tuesday. The ISM will also hold a torch march in Davao City on August 8 and a two-day conference of youth on August 9 and 10.
The ISM 2015 is spearheaded by the North America-Philippines Solidarity Affair (NAPSA), Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace Mindanao), Panalipdan! Youth (Youth for the Environment, Patrimony and Creation), Kabataang Mindanao Resource Center, Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Kalumaran), Salugpongan International and Save Our Schools Network (SOS). (davaotoday.com)
