Davao City government donates food for Maguindanao flood victims

COTABATO CITY --- The office of Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte delivered here on Saturday some 30 tons of food for flood-stricken villagers in the adjoining Pagalungan and Montawal towns in Maguindanao.The donated relief supplies were transported from Davao City to the 32-hectare compound here of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) by the mayor’s subordinate-employees. We are grateful to the city government of Davao for this help, Pombaen Karon-Kader, ARMM’s assistant social welfare secretary, said after the shipment were turned over to her at the ARMM capitol here noontime Saturday. No automatic alt text available sand//scontent.fmnl4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16195147_10209851631582258_9089632929160601012_n.jpg?oh=3a0d058f50ab3f222db1a3cea9119df6andampoe=591C7200 More than 20,000 ethnic Maguindanaon villagers in the two towns were displaced when rivers and swamps that connect to the nearby 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta overflowed last week due to heavy rains.The office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) jointly provided the flood victims with nine truckloads of food supplies during initial relief operations early this week.The People’s Medical Team of Maguindanao’s provincial government had also treated hundreds of evacuees from flooded areas afflicted with common ailments and water-borne infections.The HEART and the office of Mangudadatu are also busy extending relief services to 589 ethnic Teduray and Moro families dislocated by the hostilities on Thursday between law enforcement units and the group of a wanted mayor, Rasul Sangki, in Barangays Saniag and Masalay in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.HEART workers, operating under the supervision of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, have been feeding the evacuees since late Thursday with food procured from stores in nearby Shariff Aguak town, also in Maguindanao.Many families affected by the hostilities between the heavily armed group of Rasul, who is included in Malacañang’s list of narco-politicians, and combined Army and police teams are reluctant to return to their strife-torn villages, worried that the mayor and his followers can again establish hideouts there.Most evacuees are apprehensive the outlawed group can regain control of their villages immediately after the police and Army personnel that raided their hideouts last Thursday leave to return to their camps.Four followers of Sangki, who was elected mayor of Ampatuan during last year's local elections, were killed while three others were wounded in the incident.The running firefights erupted when followers of the mayor opened fire on soldiers and policemen who tried to approach one of their hideouts to serve him a warrant for his arrest.The exchanges of gunfire left 12 soldiers wounded, now confined in a hospital inside the Army’s Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.President Rodrigo Duterte awarded the wounded soldiers with merit medals during a brief visit to Camp Siongco Friday afternoon.The HEART, the provincial government of Maguindanao and the Army’s 6thInfantry Division are now jointly attending to the needs of evacuees from Barangays Saniag and Masalay while efforts to neutralize Sangki and his men are still underway. (Photo below shows DSWD ARMM Asec Pombaen Karon-Kader, receives food packs from DAvao City government representatives in front of ARMM executive building) . Image may contain 9 people people standing and outdoor sand//scontent.fmnl4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16265789_10209851644222574_1647190819923462216_n.jpg?oh=351d1f59ecb4739f5acdd56b786684a2andampoe=5909B140