Interfaith efforts to rescue IDPs in Marawi City proceed undaunted

LANAO DEL SUR --- Even the most battle-hardened soldiers could not help but cry seeing trained Muslim and Christian rescuers lead evacuees to safety from areas in Marawi City where terrorists laid siege.Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command said on Sunday that the retrieval last Saturday of 185 Muslims and Christians from areas where Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists showed force was an indication of government's feat in constricting enemies into small areas.More than 60 more were rescued from different villages in Marawi City on Sunday amid sporadic shots from terrorist snipers targeting both rescuers and evacuees. We in Westmincom are thanking all helping hands, Muslims and Christian rescuers and relief workers. We also ought to thank leaders in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao for their on-going humanitarian activities in Marawi City, Galvez said.Lt. Col. Gerry Besana of the Army’s 6thCivil-Military Operations Battalion said on Sunday that he and his men cried seeing dozens of Christians being escorted away, from areas where they were trapped for 12 days, by Muslim elders who provided them sanctuary. We have documented stories telling that the trouble created by these terrorists have opened the hearts and minds of people with different religions in Marawi City and those in other areas outside to the reality that only by helping one another can we defeat terrorists, Besana said.Last Saturday, infants in relief sites in Iligan City suckled from lactating Muslim and Christian mothers, who belong to the interfaith Modernong mga Nanay ng Mindanao, a bloc of young mothers actively supporting peace and development initiatives in their provinces. I felt so proud of what my 27-year-old daughter did. I’m hoping other nursing mothers would share milk to babies of Muslims and Christians now languishing in evacuation sites, said Anwar Emblawa, an ethnic Maguindanaon.Emblawa's daughter, Sharifa, was among a group that nursed infants in a relief site with milk direct from their breasts.Emblawa, a governance and political adviser to the office of the mayor in Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao, said his daughter even left his five-month old grandson in Cagayan de Oro City for a day to nurse hungry infants.Emblawa said what was fascinating with the breastfeeding mission was that Christians, among them a mother named Nadine Angelica Gadia-Casino, untiringly pushed it forward to succeed. For us, peace-loving Muslims, who believe in religious teachings preventing us from resorting to violence in seeking redress as a strong Islamic norm, that relief mission was very touching, Emblawa said.Lanao Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said he is grateful to the rescue and relief workers from the provincial government of Maguindanao who left their families to serve Maranaw evacuees in hostile areas.Besana said one touching story of heroism amid the Marawi City hostilities is about how a Maranaw datu, Norodin Alonto Lucman, son of the late Lanao del Sur Congressman Rashid Lucman, hid 71 Christians in their ancestral home to prevent them from getting massacred by Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen.Lucman and rescuers, escorted by soldiers, led the internally-displaced people (IDPs) to the provincial capitol of Lanao del Sur in Marawi City on Saturday after a 12-day stakeout.A lowly Visayan utility worker named Loloy Dando in the office of a Maranaw state prosecutor, Norma Tangol, was also credited for providing sanctuary to no fewer than 20 Christians, acting on instruction of his Muslim superior.The rescued IDPs were immediately provided with medical and rehabilitation assistance by paramedics from the offices of Adiong and Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and from the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Another Maranaw state prosecutor, Romil Guiling, was earlier lauded for having evacuated 42 Christian employees of the Dansalan College, whose buildings were burned down by terrorists on May 23, to another building near a public elementary school in Marawi City.Officers of different units of the Philippine Marine Corps from seaside towns in Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12 now fighting terrorists in Marawi City told The STAR on Sunday that they admire the courage of Muslim and Christian rescuers they saw breaking through enemy lines to rescue villagers being used as human shield by their fanatical captors. Nakaka-antig damdamin po talaga. Napaluha kami sa mga eskenang ganun. Alam nilang maari silang mapatay ng mga snipers na mga terrorista, pero sugod pa rin ng sugod, a Marine captain, who requested anonymity, told this news outfit via mobile phone.