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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Monday, June 12, 2017
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BACOLOD CITY – Schools across Negros Island Region were directed to take in learners displaced by the armed conflict in Mindanao, particularly in Marawi City, who may enroll in them this school year.
Department of Education (DepEd) regional director Gilbert Sadsad issued a memorandum on the matter addressed to all schools division superintendents.
“Internally displaced learners” who may enroll in Negros schools must be accepted even if they lack documents required for admission, Sadsad said.
According to Sadsad, his office received information from the Department of Social Welfare and Development that Dumaguete City, capital of Negros Oriental, is now home to 37 internally displaced families.
Around 80 civilians from Marawi have sought refuge in Dumaguete and Tanjay cities, according to Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo.
Issued on June 9, the DepEd-Negros memo also required schools division superintendents to submit a “Report on Enrollment of Internally Displaced Learners” from Marawi City and other areas in Mindanao.
Mindanao was placed under martial law after government troops and the Islamic State-inspired Maute group clashed following a botched military operation against terrorist Isnilon Hapilon on May 23.
The encounter led to the ongoing, nearly three-week long armed clashes that saw more than 200,000 people displaced and around 200 dead so far.
Yesterday Degamo said the Marawi residents who sought refuge in Dumaguete and Tanjay were staying with their relatives.
He said their relatives went to his office and asked to allow the fleeing families from the besieged southern city to temporarily take shelter in their residences to avoid the conflict in Mindanao.
The evacuees boarded roll-on, roll-off vessels in Dipolog City and made their way to Dumaguete, Degamo said.
Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office personnel were directed to give them food packs and hold stress debriefing among children and the elderly who may have been “deeply traumatized,” he said.
The Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office screened the evacuees and confirmed there were no suspected terrorists among the evacuees, said the governor.
Degamo urged Negros Oriental residents to help the evacuees. The provincial capitol in Dumaguete is accepting donations, he said.
More than a week ago an estimated 30 evacuees from Marawi arrived in Dumaguete.
Mayor Felipe Remollo ordered the police to conduct a thorough profiling of the evacuees in coordination with barangay officials and the intelligence community. He also wanted the whereabouts of the evacuees constantly checked.
These were not ordinary times, he said. “I don’t want monkey business in Dumaguete. No to drugs and no to terrorism.”
Meanwhile the Bacolod City Police Office has yet to verify the reported evacuation of hundreds of Marawi residents to the Negros Occidental capital.
Many local Muslims were uncooperative, according to Senior Superintendent Jack Wanky, acting Bacolod police director.
But Wanky assured that all station commanders were directed to validate the report in coordination with barangay officials./PN
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