Ravaged Lanao del Sur town starts to rebuild

MARAWI CITY — Government agencies and peace advocacy groups have started to rebuild villages in Butig, Lanao del Sur that were left devastated by eight days of armed skirmishes between military forces and jihadist rebels last month, officials said yesterday.

Workers of the provincial government and the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao ( ARMM), alongside civil society groups, urged thousands of evacuees to return and join the efforts to rehabilitate their villages.

The villages of Poktan and Ragayan felt the brunt of the fighting and these will be the priority areas were rebuilding will start, according to ARMM Vice Governor Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman.

Lucman, the office of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr., and different nongovernment organizations are now finalizing plans to hasten the restoration of normalcy in Butig town, HEART officials said.

“We are grateful to various non-government organizations in Lanao del Sur, including two-way radio clubs and the ARMM leadership for focusing extensive attention on the plight of evacuees,” said Lucman, an ethnic Maranaw from Bayang town in Lanao del Sur.

Army soldiers and radical residents, advocating the jihadist ideology of the Islamic State (IS), clashed for eight days in adjoining barangays Poktan and Ragayan in Butig town after the rebels ambushed patrolling military troops on Feb. 20.

Soldiers on Tuesday hoisted the Philip- pine flag at the abandoned lair of the extremists, led by siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute, following bloody clashes that left dozens of people from both camps killed and scores maimed. Omar was killed during the encounters while Abdullah remains at-large.

The hostilities displaced some 10,000 families, who sought refuge in Marawi City and other towns in Lanao del Sur, social welfare workers said.

HEART workers, complemented by provincial government field personnel, have distributed tons of relief goods to the evacuees as of last Thursday.

“The tension has waned considerably. We are now focused on restoring normalcy in the town, identifying physical structures that also need rebuilding,” Lucman said.