INSIDE THE HAVEN. Internally displaced women and their children from Marawi City is housed inside this mother and child-friendly space at the Saguiaran town, Lanao del Sur province. Some of the evacuees are still looking for their relatives who could be trapped inside the city due to the ongoing conflict or were able to transfer to other evacuation center. (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
MARAWI CITY, Philippines — A kid trapped somewhere inside the city of Marawi died of hunger recently, the spokesperson of the provincial government crisis committee operational center said Monday.
Zia Alonto Adiong told reporters here in a press briefing that he received an information from his relative, a police officer, that a family was trapped in Barangay Raya Madaya.
Adiong said the family included a child who died of hunger while his starving family resorted to eating their blankets.
“Early this morning, just after the flag raising ceremony, I was approached by police officer who happens to be a relative and he told me that one of his friends received a text message that there was a family in Raya Madaya with his Christian employees and apparently the kid already died of hunger and the family started to eat their blankets. So she was asking me if there was a way that we can rescue them,” Adiong said.
However, he said civilian rescue volunteers are still prohibited from entering Raya Madaya as it was still considered dangerous.
“We cannot do anything, we are not given access to this area because it’s still considered to be an encounter site where there is still a firefight,” he said.
Adiong added that they are still awaiting a clearance from the Army to enter the area.
“It’s really dismal to know all these stories and then knowing for a fact that you can’t do anything because your hands are tied. These are the stories that we deal with every day, this is our reality,” Adiong said.
Other evacuees are still finding their relatives.
In an interview with Davao Today, 8-months old pregnant Asma Amboloto, 32, a resident from Barangay Caloocan in Marawi City said when they left the city she left her 9-year old son with her elderly mother.
“Naiwan ko siya sa nanay ko, kasi hindi niya maiwan yung nanay ko. Naiwan ko kasi marami yung anak ko (I left him with my mother, because he does not want to leave his grandma. I left them because I have many children to take with me),” Amboloto recounted. She has six children and is pregnant with her seventh child.
Amboloto said her mother told them to go out of the city as she was experiencing stomach cramps already. She took five other children with her, the youngest is two years old.
Amboloto said she is not sure whether her mother and son made it out of the city.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Crisis Management Committee Office has recorded 4,880 civilians rescued or evacuated as of 5pm on June 8. As per the latest report of military officials, a total of 1,613 civilians were rescued by the government.
However, ARMM CMC said some 1,379 are still stranded while 45 are missing.(davaotoday.com)
