NEWSFLASH

SHATTERED HOMES AND DREAMS IN ISABELA

Isabela, Basilan, May 29, 2000 - The continued atrocities of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), also known as Al Harakatul Al Islamia, have displaced some 1,000 families, mostly women and children, in three municipalities here.

Records at the provincial office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) show that 35 families from Maluso town; 520 families from Lantawan and 165 families from Lamitan have fled their homes since the hostage situation erupted about a month ago.

According to Mayor Inocente Ramos of Lamitan, the 165 families with about 600 dependents were housed in at least three elementary schools in Barangays Balobo, Cabobo and Colonia, waiting for food supplies from government agencies.

In Lantawan town, some 2,000 residents of Barangays Canibugan, Landugan and Tanduh are presently occupying the Lantawan Central School while military action continue at the outskirts villages here.

Isnayra Abbas, a single parent to three children, has been staying at the Lantawan Central School in Kumalarang since the Abu Sayyaf withdrew from Mt. Punoh Mahadje in Sumisip and fled to Kumalarang in Lantawan.

"We have very little supply of food and my children have been suffering from diarrhea because of the water that we take," Abbas said in the Samal dialect.

The Lantawan municipal government has initially allocated 38 sacks of rice for the evacuees but it only lasted for few days, it was learned.

Abbas said this conflict had only worsened their living conditions as most of their crops and domestic animals were either lost or destroyed.

"We hope that this war will be over soon so that we could go back to our homes, attend to our farms, and send our children to school again," said Melinda Manuel, another evacuee from Barangay Cabobo in Lamitan.

Although others prefer to stay with their relatives in the capital town of Isabela or in Lamitan proper, most of them still want to go back to their respective homes.

Aldam Kiram, a 78-year old resident of Lantawan, said "the Abu Sayyaf rebels are greedy people and they are haram (bad) because all that they care about are their own pockets and not their brothers and sisters in Islam".

Kiram is one of the evacuees from Barangay Kumalarang, Lantawan who are suffering from pneumonia.

The different DSWD municipal offices are expected to extend more support to the displaced families.

"We do not know until when can we support these evacuees considering that our calamity funds are running short," Ramos said.

Parents are already worried about the move by the Department of Education Culture and Sports to suspend all classes in Basilan until this problem is over.

While enrollment is now going on in schools in other cities and provinces, some parents here seem pessimistic about the educational advancement of their kids. But other parents have already enrolled their children in nearby Zamboanga City for this coming schoolyear, it was learned.