By Ali G. Macabalang
Cotabato City – Hundreds of Maranao evacuees will hold a peace rally today in Marawi City to press authorities to act on their miserable situation in refugee centers.
The rally was originally meant to demand popular participation in the planning and implementation of rehabilitation efforts in war-torn Marawi City, and press for the homecoming of all refugees stranded in evacuation centers without sustained sufficient food rations and medical services, event organizers said.
Facilitators from civil society organizations said the rally, dubbed “M’balingan tano sa (let us return to) Ground Zero,” will highlight what they alleged are the harassment of Maranao evacuees at the Bayanihan village in Iligan City.
Sources said the evacuees at the Bayanihan village met Thursday and discussed efforts to document the harassment by henchmen of a local official in Iligan.
The Bayanihan village, located at Sta. Elena in Iligan, houses families displaced in 2011 by Typhoon Sendong. Some families have sold their units to Maranaos who fled Marawi when state forces fought for five months ISIS-inspired militants that laid siege on the the May 23, 2017 siege.
Opposed to the purchase of the housing units by Maranao evacuees, an official in Iligan is said to be working to evict the new occupants.