By Ben Balce
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Misamis Oriental, (PNA) -– About 350 people, including women and children, were evacuated to safer grounds as sporadic fighting between the communist rebels and government troops continue in the hinterlands of Misamis Oriental since Monday.
Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano of Misamis Oriental on Tuesday ordered the deployment of a team of social workers to the embattled area in the border of Lagonglong and Balingasag, all coastal towns in Misamis Oriental’s east district, where the fighting rages.
Edmundo Pacamalan, Jr., the provincial administrator, said that most of the evacuees came from Sitio Mingkamansi of Barangay Banglay in Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental.
The evacuees were moved to the borders of Balingasag in Barangay Kibanban to join the remaining evacuees from Sitio Lantad, Pacamalan said.
He said that relief goods from the provincial social welfare department were delivered to the area since Monday when the firefight broke out.
According to Pacamalan, the provincial government has expressed the concern on the plight of children and women who were normally vulnerable to the harsh condition in evacuation sites.
“We have provided regular feeding sessions to children and the adult in the evacuation sites,” Pacamalan said.
Gov. Emano has also expressed the optimism that the conflict in the province’s countryside would settle down sooner so that the delivery of basic services would not be hindered, Pacamalan added.
An army report said that four army soldiers of the army’s 58th Infantry Battalion based in Claveria, Misamis Oriental, were wounded as fresh fighting erupted in the hinterlands of Lagonglong, a week after communist guerrillas overran an army base in Lantad, a farming village in the neighboring town of Balingasag.
The military has not released the names of the wounded soldiers as rescue and retrieval troops sent Monday could not bring down the casualties to safer grounds due to inaccessibility and as sporadic fighting continue.