INTERNALLY displaced persons (IDPs) who fled their homes during the airstrikes against a terrorist group on Sunday, June 10, still run up to thousands, with most coming from four towns in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
The military staged airstrikes matched with ground operations in the southern portion of Liguasan Marsh last Sunday targetting bomb-making stations and Daesh-inspired bomb experts said to be holed in there.
Fifteen suspected terrorists were killed, eight wounded, and a couple said to be terrorists were arrested.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Pikit Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) reported that a total of 1,229 families are still in evacuation centers and in homes of relatives, aside from the 292 families already listed last Sunday.
These evacuees were from Barangays Talitay, Rajamuda, Buliok, Bagoinged and Barungis.
"We also facilitated the evacuees from Kalbugan part of Pagalungan Municipality, Province of Maguindanao," said Peter Pechon, DSWD project development officer II in Pikit.
In Armm, four municipalities were affected: Pagalungan, Datu Montawal, General Salipada K. Pendatun (GSKP), and Sultan sa Barongis, all in the province of Maguindanao.
A report from the Armm Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team showed (Armm Heart) that Pagalungan had evacuees coming from barangays Kalbugan, Buliok and Dalgan with 1,145 families.
A total of 1,008 families who evacuated from Datu Montawal came from three other barangays, while from GSKP, 390 families from one barangay remain displaced.
Three other barangays were affected in Sultan sa Barongis with 362 families displaced.
Residents of three other barangays from Pagalungan who earlier evacuated had already gone home, Myrna Jo Henry of Armm Heart said. These were the residents of barangays Kudal, Bangoenged, and Inug who went home Tuesday. (SAE with JCR)