Amin Partylist, ARMM-HEART teams up for Talayan rehab mission

TALAYAN, Maguindanao-- Soldiers and volunteers from various groups on Tuesday initiated another humanitarian mission for evacuees in Talayan town as part of a continuing effort to serve thousands affected by the four-week hostilities in Maguindanao province.Tension has waned in seven Maguindanao municipalities where the military and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters have had 26 encounters from February 28 to March 29, but displaced folks are reluctant to return to their homes, worried that BIFF bandits could return and rebuild camps in their villages again. The military-BIFF encounters had prompted Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu and the provincial board, chaired by Vice Gov. Lester Sinsuat, to declare 11 of the 36 towns in the province under state of calamity to maximize the government's relief and rehabilitation efforts in conflict-wracked areas.Tuesday’s relief intervention for evacuees cramped in squalid evacuation sites in Talayan, located in the second district ofMaguindanao, was a joint initiative of the Anak Mindanao (Amin) Partylist, the Army’s 6thInfantry Division and the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.The HEART, operating under the supervision of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his regional executive secretary, lawyer Laisa Alamia, has been dispersing since February 28 more than P1 million worth of food rations weekly to 125,312 villagers, mostly children and women, that got dislocated by the military-BIFF face-off.The latest relief mission for evacuees from conflict-stricken barangays in Talayan was also assisted by the Kaya Natin Movement for Good Governance, a non-government organization helping push the Mindanao peace process forward.Amin Partylist Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman said she is thankful to the Army’s 6thInfantry Division and the ARMM-HEART for providing volunteers to assist in the mission.Tuesday’s involvement of the Amin Partylist and the Kaya Natin NGO in relief operations for Maguindanao's displaced folks was the second in just two weeks.Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the 6thID, said soldiers are now focused on relief missions for internally-displaced folks following last week’s suspension of the military’s massive law enforcement operation against the BIFF.Medics and dentists from the 6thID helped the Amin Partylist and the ARMM-HEART attend to the medical and dental needs of the evacuees confined in relief sites in Talayan.The HEART, whose operation is backed by the ARMM’s health and social welfare departments, dispersed more than a hundred tons of food, drinking water and non-relief supplies to evacuees in continuing relief and rehabilitation activities that started last week of February.Physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., ARMM's regional health secretary, brought with him dozens of relief and rehabilitation experts that provided needed interventions to ease the plight of evacuees in Talayan during Tuesday's relief operations in the area.