Uniformed relief women contingent disperse `kurban' to Marawi residents

LANAO DEL SUR --- The neophyte all women uniformed relief contingent in Marawi City was in the frontline during the distribution of two tons of beef to evacuees on Eid’l Adha holiday, officials said Monday.Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, information staff of the Western Mindanao Command, said Monday that the team led the dispersal of kurban, or meat from cattle slaughtered as Eid offering, to evacuees in Saguiaran town last Friday.Saguiaran is among several towns where the provincial government of Lanao del Sur and the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao established evacuation sites for evacuees from Marawi City.Muslims the world over celebrated the Eid’l Adha last Friday.The Kurban distribution activity was a joint initiative of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, the Task Force Marawi and local leaders in Saguiaran, which is not too distant from Marawi City.Officials supplied the 15 heads of cattle butchered by clerics for internally-displaced people in evacuation sites.Petinglay said the police women and female soldiers facilitated the distribution of beef to evacuees as part of their mission to help in relief and rehabilitation efforts for children and women from Marawi City.The all women police and Army relief contingent arrived in Marawi City from Manila only last week, brought in by Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., commander of the Western Mindanao Command.Galvez has tactical jurisdiction over all AFP units fighting Maute terrorists in Marawi City and in nearby towns in Lanao del Sur.Galvez said the event last Friday was the first major non-combat mission of the contingent. We are thankful to the people behind the distribution by women in uniform of beef to evacuees during the Eid’L Adha holiday, said a Maranao regional lawmaker, Zia Alonto Adiong, member of the 24-seat ARMM Regional Assembly. It is a tradition among Muslim organizations and moneyed individuals to give out kurban to poor and needy people during the Eid’l Adha, also known as the Islamic feast of sacrifice.Muslims also accept kurban from non-Muslims as long as sacrificial animals are slaughtered according to Islamic procedures.The Eid’l Adha is one of two most important religious holidays in Islam, along with the Eid’l Fitr that marks the culmination of the month-long Ramadhan fasting season.Besides the kurban distribution in Saguiaran, the WestMinCom also helped facilitate the same activities in other parts of central Mindanao that were sponsored by local and foreign donors, among them non-government organizations with Turkish benefactors.