FORWARDING the idea that “Fake news” is used to attack mainstream professional journalists is one of my major goals as a communication mentor. However, after reading the column of Ramon Tulfo (On Target) on inquirer.net, this has given me the reason why some people disrespect other writers. Journalists like him are expected to have done a good research about their subjects at hand.
Meranaws, as I always reiterate in my previous articles, are peace loving people by nature. We are culturally known to be hospitable (masakaw) and well-behaved (bilangatao) on top of our being Muslims who are expected to be respectful (balaadaten) and patient (masabar). However, we are always tagged wrongly by writers who do not know much about us. Our being Meranaw is different from being a Marawian—so is being Meranaw is far different from being a Muslim.
I gave that as a starting information about us because the article that Tulfo wrote about us, Marawi residents, delaying the rehab is totally written out of context and is incomplete. I say this because he hastily mentioned that “government workers have been harassed from all sides by residents demanding their houses be attended to first.”
How can civilians like us who do not have any armed force fight against the country’s martial law? Our sad plight as internally displaced individuals became a mockery in this country’s fiasco. Last October 17, 2018 marked the whole year of waiting in pain for all of us. We do not receive clear cut plans for us. Not a single penny is received by me, an IDP (internally displaced person) from Lumbaca Madaya in one of the zones of the ground zero. We have not been attended to as a people in contrary to what Tulfo wrote about us. We cannot even see or visit our personal houses without the Task Force Bangon Marawi’s consent.
The disgruntled few Meranaw individuals who are violently speaking against the government having no concrete plans is actually a fact. But we are decent enough to accept that only a few of our people are impatient already and the majority is still waiting in vain because we believe in what this government can offer.
These few, if there are, do not represent the Meranaws in the land. We deserve to be asked, researched upon before one can carelessly claim how bad we are as a people. As they say, respect begets respect.
Mal-information about us Mernanaws have been escalating in different platforms and genre these days. While others are making a mockery about us, we have patiently waited and trusted the government that our people chose to have.
Nonetheless, researching about what really happened is a must. I cannot accept the words coming from a reputable person saying that “Marawi residents didn’t inform the police and military about the presence of strangers...” What a cliché. What happened to national intelligence then? Are civilians more aware than them?
I am a friend to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. I bring foreign friends in Marawi since I was a student. I was even educated in a Christian school in Marawi where non-Meranaws are welcome to teach and study. Hence, it is not new for us to have new faces in the city. We have open hearts to anyone but that doesn’t make us supporters of terrorists.
While there are some who might have known and spread the disinformation, it is not a guarantee that local people can just pin point terrorists in the crowd. If one knows Marawi, being the city center of the thirty-nine (39) Municipalities in Lanao, these words of disgust against us would not be uttered at all.
With over forty years of my life in Marawi, this is my first time to have encountered a terroristic attack. It is not our daily cup of tea. We have Rido (family feud) issues but that do not victimize innocent people who are not part of this clash of clans. We respect our people’s visitors just as how we have respected the existence and the service of the military men who risked their lives in saving ours.
For those who do not know us, or have imagined to have known us, search for the truth without the biases in your heart and you will know us even better.
For all my brothers and sisters in Marawi, let us wait with the faith in Allah.
“Do not lose hope, nor be sad...” Qur’an 3:139