Return of Maranaws to Lanao Sur due to Metro Manila COVID-19 scare expected
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 11:45 AM Sat Mar 14, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
Governor Mamintal Bombit Alonto Adiong, Jr. orders the LDS Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to set up an Assistance Desk Center at the Laguindingan Airport to document our fellow Meranaos who have arrived and shall arrive.
COTABATO CITY --- Officials are anticipating an “exodus” to Lanao del Sur from Metro Manila of Maranaw merchants and their families due to displacement as a consequence of the coronavirus plague.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said Saturday he will convene on Monday the 39 mayors in Lanao del Sur and local officials in its capital, Marawi City, to build consensus on quarantine and rehabilitation measures for returning constituents.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night placed Metro Manila under "community quarantine" from March 15 to April 14, 2020 due to the rising prevalence of COVID-19 infection cases.
Adiong has deployed experts from their provincial disaster risk reduction and management council at the Laguindingan Airport in nearby Cagayan de Oro City to record incoming Maranaws en route to Lanao del Sur and to initially check their health conditions.
Senior members of the league of mayors in Lanao del Sur placed at between 25,000 to 40,000 their estimate of Metro Manila-based Maranaws engaged in small and medium enterprises.
“If the business climate in Metro Manila becomes damp due to this COVID-19 disease spreading around, surely these Maranaws will return to Lanao del Sur. Not all of them are from our province but majority of them are from here,” Adiong said.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, local government minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Saturday he has instructed their provincial personnel to assist Adiong in addressing the concern.
“I have an initial directive to our mayors to closely monitor the health of constituents returning to Lanao del Sur due to the obviously difficult situation now in Metro Manila. Returning Maranaws should be quarantined and observed by personnel of the municipal health offices,” Adiong said.
Physician Allen Minalang, chief of the Lanao del Sur Integrated Provincial Health Office, said he and his staff have been coordinating with local government units since Wednesday to ensure cohesion in providing medical care to Maranaws returning to their hometowns.
Photo: Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. is chairman of Lanao Sur's inter-agency disaster management council. (File)