A GROUP of displaced residents from Marawi City has condemned on Friday, June 1, the alleged harassment and surveillance against their fellow evacuees, saying these actions was initiated by the government to silence them from expressing their sentiments to the media.
Tindeg Ranao chairperson Aida Ibrahim cited several cases of intimidation and threat directed at the internally displace persons (IDPs) of Marawi, the latest of which the case of the couple Rohaina and Olawan Magarang who were reportedly told by the camp manager at the Sarimanok Tent Shelter II not to talk to the media after an interview with them was aired on television on May 23, the first anniversary of the conflict in that city.
Ibrahim said the couple was just making an appeal to the government to allow the IDPs to return to their homes in Marawi.
She said the Magarangs have been compliant with the tent shelter rules but they oppose the policy that they should ask permission from the camp manager first before granting interviews to the press.
Because of that aired interview, she said, the couple and their family are in danger of being booted out of the temporary dwelling site.
“They (Magarangs) are on the verge of being driven out of the tent shelter. They are being asked of barangay certificate and profile but they could not give them since their village chairman did not issue them said documents. What they have is the personal information sheet stating their address in Moncado Colony (Marawi) signed by [barangay] chairman Omar on Nov. 2, 2017 at the Barangay Colony Satellite Office in Iligan City,” Ibrahim said.
Tindeg Ranao believes that the IDPs’ insistence on being allowed to go back to their communities in the war-stricken areas of Marawi and their opposition of the “undemocratic” recovery plan for the city by the Duterte government to build an ecozone, army camp and military reservation could be the reason why they are being harassed and are being targeted for surveillance.
“We believe that the planned rehabilitation of Marawi will only bring sustained and massive displacement of the Maranao people, and the exploitation of our resources since the government has offered Marawi to foreign capitalists such US and China. The US has donated $20.9 million and China P390 million for Marawi,” she added.
Ibrahim said the displaced residents will not be stopped as they continue to demand from the government for justice.
“The victims of the Marawi Crisis will continue to ask for justice because we have been suffering for a year in evacuation, temporary and tent shelters. We will keep on launching protest actions in the face of threats from the government,” she said.