The evacuees in Himamaylan City have one common sentiment, they want to go back to their homes but are willing to wait, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Thursday, October 13.
It has been a week since the evacuees left their homes following clashes between government and rebel forces in Barangay Carabalan, Himamaylan City, that began on October 6.
Lacson, Mayor Raymund Tongson, Rep. Emilio Yulo III (Neg. Occ., 5th District), and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) officials visited the evacuees at the Cong. Agustin M. Gatuslao Memorial Center in Barangay 1, Himamaylan, but the media was barred from entering the facility.
Men manning the entrance said they were under instructions not to let the media in to interview the evacuees or take photos.
Strict rules have been set at the evacuation center on who can enter and who can leave.
However, none of the government officials would admit who gave the order to bar the media.
“I cannot answer that, sorry…that’s the policy so we’ll just follow that,” Lacson said when asked why the media could not enter.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Brigade commander, and Department of Social Welfare and Development regional director Carmelo Nochete also said they did not know who gave the order.
“It may be the policy of the evacuation center manager,” Nochete said.
Himamaylan Mayor Raymund Tongson said no news blackout had been imposed, although he admitted that there was some information that the military could not share with them because of their ongoing operations.
“We will have to understand that there is an ongoing operation, we don’t know the complete protocol of the military…What we are doing right now is just really trying to solve the collateral damage,” he said.
Asked if their barring the media from interviewing the evacuees was an order of the military, Tongson said “It’s a combination of all the agencies concerned.”
Tongson also said it was clarified during a briefing with the DSWD that there are only 3,000 to 3,500 warm bodies at the evacuation centers.
Tongson said the 18,236 earlier reported by the provincial social welfare office as evacuees, include those who were extracted from the encounter area, and those who are still there.
It was clarified that the 18,236 were persons affected by the ongoing military operations, Lacson said.
Merle Garcia, Provincial Social Welfare Officer, said the report she has is there are 18,236 evacuees.
It is a sad situation for the evacuees because they are worried because they left behind their farm animals and crops, Nochete said.
DSWD Undersecretary Vilma B. Cabrera and Assistant Secretary Ma. Evelyn Macapobre joined a briefing on the Himamaylan situation and visited evacuation centers in barangays 1 and 3 of the city on Thursday.
The DSWD gave cash assistance of P3,000 per family while the provincial government is continuing to give food aid to the evacuees, Lacson said.
“We got the assurance of DSWD national of continued support,” he said.
The instruction of DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo was to see how the DSWD could further help, Lacson said.
The DSWD has prepositioned family food packs, and hygiene and sleeping kits, Nochete said.
Tongson said they also mapping out plans to assist the evacuees when they return to their homes in Barangay Carabalan.*