A TOTAL of 429 individuals from Marawi City and its neighboring towns arrived and sought temporary shelter at 23-C Mini-Forest village, Davao City following the crisis in Marawi City.
Maranao Deputy Mayor Randy Usman, in an interview with VoxPop Davao, said 90 percent of the evacuees are from Marawi City but others are from its neighboring municipalities.
"Before nato sila dawaton, gina-interview nato sila -- asa gikan, asa ang pamilya, edad, ug complete family members. Ang City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO) karon naga-start og kuha sa bio data sa bag-o niabot, pagkahuman ipa-usab og interview sa kapulisan (Before we accept them, we interview where they came from, their age, and complete family members. The CSSDO is also starting to get the bio-data of those who just arrived and after that another interview will be administered by the police)," Usman said.
He said the evacuees are very cooperative with the measures being undertaken, adding that they have not encountered suspicious evacuees yet but there are those who cannot directly answer the interview questions because of trauma.
No stress debriefing is scheduled yet since they still observe activities for Ramadan, Usman said.
Usman added that those from the neighboring towns of Marawi City decided to go to Davao as they can hear bombs in from their residences.
"They targeted to stay in Davao because they feel that they are safe here and they cannot hear that they are being discriminated," he said.
Most of the evacuees stay at the house of their relatives while some opted to rent houses for their shelter.
Usman added the village council and the 19 elders gave an initial donation to the evacuees and Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte has given assistance to initial 343 families.
He said the deputy mayors are in full support of Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s pronouncements to conduct dialogues in their communities on peace and order.
"Noon pa yan, kaming mga deputy mayors nagdadialogue sa community namin, kinakausap namin yan talaga, SOP yan sa Davao City (We always conduct dialogue with our community. It’s a standard operating procedure)," he said.
The evacuees, meanwhile, wished to end of the Marawi siege and the proper implementation of the rehabilitation that will follow after it.
The deputy mayors of Sama tribe and Kagan tribe said they are reminding their tribal leaders to be vigilant in their communities.
"Trabaho ibinigay sa Deputy leader na mag monitor sa anilang lugar sa bawat taong pumapasok, ang bawat taong pumapasok at hindi kilala ay iniiterview (As a Deputy leader, we are tasked to monitor who comes in and out in our place)," Kagan Tribe Deputy Mayor Bobby Mohamad said, adding that even the relatives of residents coming in the city are not exempt from the profiling.
Deputy Leader of Sama Tribe, Estrelita Tangili Mahamud said she always remind the tribal leaders in three districts to support in monitoring suspicious elements and to immediately report to the Task Force Davao Hotline and or to the Davao City Police Office hotline.