Bravery of emergency workers in troubled Marawi City acknowledged

LANAO DEL SUR ---- Rescue and relief experts deployed in dangerous areas in Marawi City got praises on Sunday for heroic acts in very dangerous situations.A Maranaw lawmaker, Zia Alonto Adiong of the 24-seat Regional Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said he admires them for putting their lives on the line everyday to help conflict-stricken residents. I’m so inspired watching their heroism unfold each day, ordinary people doing extraordinary jobs. Many of them doing it for good of mankind without salaries, said Adiong.Adiong is spokesman of the crisis management unit of the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, which is overseeing relief operations in Marawi City,the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of ARMM.Adiong said some of the rescuers and volunteer relief workers are Christians who showed remarkable courage in extricating Muslims from scenes of encounters, bullets whizzing through their locations.Karim Macalang, 35, said it was a burly Visayan rescuer who ushered his family away from their small house riddled with bullets by Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen who prevented them from leaving as they laid siege.Macalang and his family are now safe in a house of a relative in Kapatagan town in Lanao del Sur. A rescuer talked to us in Cebuano, asking if we are alright, if we can come out so he can lead us to a truck parked nearby, he told this news outfit in Filipino.Adiong said he is also delighted with how Muslim elders led Christians to relief sites amid heavy exchanges of gunfire in the surroundings. These rescuers ought to be honored. I don’t have enough words to express the provincial government’s gratitude to all of them, working in very dangerous situations since the first day of the conflict, Adiong said.Peace activists on Sunday circulated text messages appealing for prayers for the safety of rescuers herding away from the frontlines villagers being used as human shield by terrorists and those trapped in recurring skirmishes. These rescuers and emergency responders need our prayers. We have to pray for them just as we pray for the safety of the thousands of Muslim and Christian evacuees from Marawi City, said Susana Anayatin of the Goldin Institute of the Philippines.The entity Anayatin works for is involved in various activities complementing the Southern Mindanao peace process.She is also the presiding chairperson of a multi-sectoral advisory board supporting the humanitarian programs of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division. There would have been no successful rescue of thousands from barangays where terrorists displayed the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria if not for these brave rescuers, Anayatin said.Bobby Benito of ARMM’s Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission told reporters in a text message Sunday that he was saddened by stories of how some rescue workers were fired at by gunmen while on rescue missions. We are thankful no one was hurt. These men and women are unsung heroes. Their tales of heroism are enough for a thick book depicting their sacrifices and volunteerism, Benito said.Benito urged Muslims observing the Ramadhan fasting season to include in their worship rites special prayers for the safety of all emergency workers out in the streets of the troubled Marawi City. We have been praying for the Muslim and Christian evacuees since the trouble there started. We should include these brave Muslim and Christian rescuers in our prayers too, Benito said.Vice Mayor Hadji Akmad Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao said on Sunday that he is grateful to the Christian rescuers who saved his constituent, Islamic missionary Said Adam, when hostilities simultaneously erupted in several barangays in Marawi City on May 23.Born and raised in Shariff Aguak, Adam, an ustadz (preacher), worked in a school in Marawi City run by moderate Islamic groups opposed to the religious ideology of the ISIS-inspired Maute terror group.Adam and his wife, Saguira, also a Maguindanaon, repeatedly turned down earlier attempts to recruit them into the fold of the fanatical Dawlah Islamiya cult founded by siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute. The hostilities forced us to leave Marawi City only with our clothes on. We were relocated to Maguing where we stayed for two days before we decided to go home to Shariff Aguak after staying for so many years in Marawi, Adam said.Maguing is a town in Lanao del Sur not too distant from Marawi CityAmpatuan said he will request Imams in Shariff Aguak to pray for the welfare of people taking care of evacuees from Marawi City regardless of their religions and tribes. That is a very noble Islamic practice. Wishing one good health and safety is already like wishing all of mankind wellness too. In Islam, smiling to strangers is already an act of charity, the vice mayor said.Adiong, whose mother, Soraya, is governor of Lanao del Sur, said they are also grateful to the emergency and relief workers from Maguindanao, also a component province of ARMM, sent to Marawi City by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.The Maguindanao humanitarian contingent brought 30 tons of relief supplies to Marawi City, including 10 tons of fresh tilapias from the inland fish pens of the Mangudadatu family. We also appreciate with honor the help of mayors in Basilan and their provincial governor there, Adiong said.Adiong said Lanao del Sur residents are thankful to the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the ARMM government for its continuing humanitarian missions in Marawi City since first day of the conflict. I never heard the rescuers and relief workers from Marawi City, from Lanao del Sur and from other areas complain about anything while working under dire situations.These are real people with very kind hearts, Adiong said.