More than a hundred families here remain in three evacuation centers after an armed encounter between government troops and communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on July 25 in the upland village of Kalilangan.
The July 25 encounter resulted in the wounding of a soldier who was part of the 51s t Infantry Battalion (51IB) unit conducting a Community Support Program (CSP), according to Col. Alex Aduca, deputy commander of the Army's 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
Kalilangan Barangay chairman Alimoding Mansumayan said Tuesday the families are from two sitios that were affected by intermittent clashes between the Army's 51IB and the NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The displaced villagers currently occupy a mosque and three classrooms at an elementary school in Barangay Rogongon, Mansumayan said.
“They are not yet returning to their houses because the military is still pursuing the armed men. They are afraid there will be firefight again,” the village official said.
But Barangay Rogongon chairman Randy Pugoy expressed concern that the longer the evacuees occupy classrooms in the village, the more it will affect the 130 elementary school learners who have not been able to hold classes for several days now.
In a dialogue Monday with the barangay officials, leaders of the Indigenous Peoples in the hinterland barangays and the security sectors in Iligan City, Pugoy called for an end to the hostilities so that the displaced residents can go back to their homes
Grace Saquilabon, chief of Iligan City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD), said the local government unit has not yet delivered emergency relief assistance to the displaced families because the Barangay Council of Kalilangan has not yet submitted a master list of the evacuees.
“There should be a master list of the evacuees so that we will know the profile of the legitimate evacuees that we are going to give relief assistance,” Saquilabon said in a phone interview Tuesday.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1076532
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