Displaced Marawi residents also flee to Cagayan de Oro

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – As thousands of civilians fled Marawi City following the firefight between members of local terror groups and state forces starting Tuesday afternoon, some displaced residents found it difficult to seek shelter in neighboring areas, like in this city.

While the neighboring Lanao del Norte and the cities of Iligan and Cagayan De Oro have set up temporary shelters to welcome the influx of internally displaced persons from Marawi, others like 

Fatima (not her real name), 36, married, has opted not to go to the evacuation centers.

Fatima, from Barangay Bangon in Marawi, is one of the more than 5,000 evacuees who escaped the skirmishes in Marawi. She and her four children hitched a ride on the vehicle of her husband’s relative that left that city Wednesday night.

They arrived in Cagayan de Oro late Thursday morning because of the traffic congestion that caused a gridlock in Iligan.

Fatima said they decided to relocate to this city so she and her kids could have a decent place to stay. Her husband is working in Manila.

Before the chaos ensued on Tuesday in Marawai, Fatima recalled she just stepped out of a money-transfer office at the Mindanao State University main campus in Barangay Rapasun to get the cash her husband sent.

At Barangay Basak Malutlot, she saw soldiers positioned in the streets, and when she reached city hall, people were running to different directions as gunshots were heard from afar.

Fatima said she and her children lost no time in going to her neighbor’s house, her husband’s relatives, and decided to hitch a ride with them going out of Marawi.

“We haven’t brought anything. Me and my children only had the clothes we wear,” she said. “We didn’t care if there were gunshots. We just wanted to get out of Marawi.”

She said that there were armed men she suspected of being Maute Group members outside her house who told them to move out immediately.

“[The armed men] ordered us to hurry up and leave Marawi. They also said they will burn our houses,” she added.

When they reached Iligan City, they spent the night at a lodge before proceeding to Cagayan de Oro in the morning.

Speaking to this reporter at a police checkpoint in Sitio Kinasanghan, Barangay Iponan where a team from the City Public Safety Battalion was flagging down vehicles coming from the western part of 

Mindanao, Fatima said they were still searching for a place to stay.

Most of those who fled Marawi stayed in their relatives’ houses in Cagayan de Oro, but Fatima said her kin’s residences are already full of evacuees.

She said she wanted her children to live in Cagayan de Oro and have them study here, but it will be hard for them since their school documents were destroyed after the Maute Group burned the Dansalan College campus in Barangay Moncado Colony.

“I don’t know [if they can enroll in Cagayan de Oro]. They have no credentials anymore since [Dansalan College] was burned down,” Fatima said.
(Jigger J. Jerusalem/PNA)