Maguindanao dads: Schools ready for June classes amid skirmishes

COTABATO CITY – Amidst the continuing armed conflict and evacuation in some municpalities in the province of Maguindanao, classrooms in the public elementary and high schools are all in placed and ready for use for the opening of classes on Monday, June 1.

As of today, Datu Piang town Administrator Mosib Tan said no classroom in any of the schools here are being used as evacuation centers of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

As a result of the renewed skirmishes in their neighboring communities, Tan said there are 2,630 new families added to the 4,112 families left in their municipalities since the conflict started last August 2008 between the government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Tan clarified that classes for children of IDPs coming from the six barangays affected by the armed conflict will still have their classes open on Monday. They will be using the extra classrooms in some schools especially classrooms at Gumbay Elementary School, he added.

IDPs are staying in bunk houses and relocation centers constructed in Poblacion and at the back of Notre Dame of Dulawan.

ARMM Governor Datu Zaldy Uy Ampatuan directed education officials in the region and local chief executives to direct all their efforts to the needs of the IDPs especially the children who are attending school this year.

Ampatuan ordered the preparation of the school facilities in the region for the start of classes on Monday.

The Department of Education-ARMM has been conducting Brigada Eskwela regionwide for the preparation of the opening of classes.

Meanwhile, Tan added that DSWD-ARMM and humanitarian groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, World Food Programme, Mindanao Tulong Bakwit and Community and Family Service Incorporated and other non-government organizations are continuously assisting the IDPs in their municipality. He said that the International Organization on Migration (IOM) gave 10,000 nipa for IDPs to help build their temporary houses. (bpi-armm)