Giving voice to their plight

CHEERS TO the Manila Bulletin for giving voice to the largely unmentioned victims in any conflict: the displaced families.

Last March 1, it related the plight of 990 displaced families who lived in the villages of Barongis, Buliok and Kalbugan but who are currently in various evacuation centers in the town of Pikit, North Cotabato. The families were forced to abandon their homes after armed confrontations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) erupted last February.

“Life here is very difficult,” Bai Dido Dilambasum, a 32-year-old mother with three children, told the Bulletin. “This is the third time that I experienced evacuation due to armed conflict.”

“I thought there’s no more war, but here it is again,” she added.

The article (“990 displaced families lament: ‘We’re tired of running’”) looked at the difficulties the displaced families have experience every day since the clashes began, among them the shortage in food supplies and the spread of various ailments in the evacuation centers.