DAVAO CITY—The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the number of residents trapped in the fighting in Marawi City has dwindled to 500, even as it raised concern that the onset of the rainy season could exacerbate trouble for the more than 300,000 evacuees in their temporary shelters.
The government military said the space was getting narrower for the Maute Group fighters at the lakeside edge of Marawi City, as soldiers pressed on their ground offensive.
In Cagayan de Oro City, the police and the Army arrested at dawn on Thursday a person surnamed Maute believed to be a bomb-making trainer.
In its recent bulletin on Thursday, the ICRC said the number of evacuees has numbered more than 200,000 as fighting entered its fourth week, while those trapped inside the cramped communities may have dwindled to 500 persons.
The ICRC said it was getting the update from authorities in the area.
But the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said the number may still be around 1,079, a number 300 less than its last posting on June 11, when the estimate for trapped residents was placed at 1,379.
The ICRC warned the onset of the rains was expected to spell trouble for the evacuees, especially for the children and the elderly staying in the evacuation centers.
“Protracted stay under such conditions makes them more vulnerable to water-borne and communicable diseases,” it said.
The warning came as it reported some evacuation centers were underserved due to the surge in the number of people going to the centers, a trend expected to continue as prolonged fighting increased the negative impact on their safety, property and sources of income.
The ICRC has worked with the Philippine Red Cross in the Marawi crisis, as the ARMM also worked with its disaster response unit, The Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team (ARMM-HEART) and its own Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to serve the needs of the evacuees.
The ICRC said the Saguiaran town rural health unit has established a mini hospital with provisions for 10 folding beds and additional medical supplies to last for the next three months. The ARMM said it has spent P35 million in humanitarian aid for the victims of the Marawi City crisis. Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the amount is still half of its initial allocation of P77 million.
“During the three-week battle between government troops and local terrorist groups, the committee managed to save more than 5,132 trapped or stranded, civilians in Marawi’s war zone, while 1,079 civilians are still inside the battle zone and need to be rescued immediately,” the ARMM added.
The ARMM’s health department has set up an operation center in Iligan City to provide medical assistance to the evacuees. To ensure equal and timely relief distribution to individuals struggling with the situation in Marawi City, the ARMM uses a system dubbed Disaster Assistance and Family Access Card (DAFAC).
The system is applied by the DSWD to validate the status of families affected by the crisis, which would serve as a reference in the provision of appropriate interventions.
ARMM Executive Secretary Laisa M. Alamia said the DAFAC would also be used in future rehabilitation and recovery programs for Marawi City.
“We are encouraging residents of Marawi City, whether staying in the evacuation centers or not, to register with their social welfare office,” Alamia added.
The DSWD-ARMM is the lead agency manning the operation center established in the municipality of Malabang in Lanao del Sur.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Gilbert Gapay, spokesman of martial-law implementation in Eastern Mindanao, identified the alleged Maute bomber as Mohammad Noaim Maute, alias Abu Jadid.
Maute was arrested at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday in his rented house in Sitio Santa Cruz, Macasandig, Cagayan de Oro City.
Gapay said Maute’s presence was tipped by a resident who said he saw a person who resembled Abu Jadid, who is included in a photo gallery posted all over Mindanao.
Gapay said Maute was an Arabic-language teacher in Marawi City tagged as a suspected bomb expert of the Maute Group. He said Maute concealed his identity under a fake student identification of Mindanao State University with the name Alfaiz P. Mamintal.
Gapay said Maute admitted to his real identity during the investigation, and that he was a cousin of the founding Maute brothers. He was detained at the Cagayan de Oro City Police station.