Duterte, please stop the bombing that kill thousand of your Maranao blood !
By MAS YAHYA
Iligan City
May 29, 2017
After my mother died years ago, I told myself not to cry anymore. I felt there were no more tears to shed. Now I couldn't help, my tears are falling again in watching the sufferings of our people, many of them have been killed, if not fleeing in exodus from their own beloved City of Marawi, running for their lives.
They were asked to leave their homes as if the catastrophe in the forms of bombings has been premeditated. Many of those who failed to leave immediately got killed by air strikes, mortar bombs, and bullets, or burned to death. Meanwhile, those who were able to flee alive become displaced and suffer so much humiliation.
Yes, relief goods were so fast to be ready as if they were already prepared for the devastation -- something that dubious minds keep on flying with "why?" All government agencies are on the move. And Iligan City is the center of operations from whence everything is coordinated. But no amount of relief goods could buy the loss of lives, properties and homeland the good innocent Marawians suffer.
Yesterday, Atty. Dabs Mamao, a Maranao cabinet official in the Duterte administration, told me in phone dispatch that he was able to facilitate the recovery of more than 300 cadavers which the military would not allow earlier. Mamao was tasked by President Duterte to look into this war if it could be called war. Mamao is doing his best.
And I personally admire Secretary Mamao for that effort.
As of this writing, unconfirmed report said there were already a thousand dead bodies found in the city streets and houses in Marawi as there are buildings burned. The city is stinking to the max. The once vibrant city turns into a ghost town that no living thing seems to exist.
Mamao said he asked military authorities to stop the airstrikes and use of artillery and similar bomb weapons. He said the military might have given heed to his call because as of our conversation yesterday no airstrike or mortar has been reported to him. Nut this morning social media posted a burning area in the city.
In Iligan City Maranao sultans and traditional leaders are calling for press conferences to ask Duterte stop the bombing. Late afternoon yesterday, Sultan Nasrollah Conding of Bacolod, Marawi, Sultan Duma Sani of Guimba, Marawi and Moh Abbas, among others, met the press. It seemed though the press did not get information worthwhile.
Social media carried appeals to Muslims in Manila to hold peaceful demos to beg the President stop the bombing. They asked where are those Muslim NGOs and youth activists who were always seen in Manila condemning the atrocities in foreign lands. "Why can't they do the same when their own people and homeland are the victims?"
If we may, the most urgent call now that every peace loving person in this country is to ask President Duterte stop the air strikes and bombings for his Maranao people will be eradicated.
Isn't he a Maranao blooded leader?
