South Upi families benefit from Maguindanao relief mission

SOUTH UPI, Maguindanao – At least 2,023 drought-affected families benefited from a joint relief mission over the weekend in South Upi town by the provincial government and the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).Lynette Estandarte, chief of the budget division in the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, said they enlisted the help of the PRC to avoid being accused of electioneering.Bai Fatima Sinsuat, a senior PRC official in Central Mindanao, said they have provided peasant clans from 17 areas in Barangay Romangaob in South Upi with food supplies from the office of Mangudadatu during their day-long relief operation last Saturday.Estandarte said the People’s Medical Team of the governor’s office had served about 3,000 sick villagers in different barangays in the same municipality in dental-medical missions initiated with the help of the military prior to Saturday’s distribution of food supplies to local folks.South Upi is one of the 12, from among 36 towns in Maguindanao, badly affected by the drought that started in late November 2015.The dry spell scorched vast swaths of corn farms in South Upi, causing shortages in income of farmers.