(Eagle News) — Vice President Leonor Robredo visited evacuees inside an elementary school outside the besieged Marawi City on Monday (June 26) and said that it was more important at this point not to criticize the government in handling the Marawi crisis.
Robredo, who just came from a visit to the United States, said the government was doing everything it can with the current crisis, and hoped that the fighting will end soon.
Although she had been critical of government’s position especially in the drug war before, Robredo, the head of the opposition’s Liberal Party, said criticism will not do good at this time in handling the Marawi crisis.
“More than any other time in our country today, this is the time we need to show that we are one,” she said.
“I think the government has been doing everything that it can. We can only hope that this will end soon. Because that is the question that all the evacuees have been asking us. ‘When can we go back to Marawi? When can we go back to our respective homes?’ It is a question that we cannot answer definitely,” she said.
Robredo also refrained from commenting about the martial law declared by the government.
“Hindi perpekto pero kailangang pagtulungan nating lahat,” she said.
“Rather than ng magcriticize nang magcriticize, magtulungan na lang tayo kasi maraming pangangailangan na kailangan talagang sagutin,” she said.
Evacuees told Robredo to help rescue the hundreds of civilians still trapped inside the town. Rayhana Mama Amir, a mother of two, said she was worried about getting evicted from their school-turned-evacuation centre once classes resume, saying her family has no money and no home to return to in Marawi.
“Our problem is where will we go if the war there ends. We don’t have money. How can we go anywhere else? We can’t because we don’t have money, and where can we even go? School is about to start. We’re about to get evicted here,” Amir said.
Robredo said that the evacuation center she visited was cleaner and more orderly.
“Dito, kahit marami ‘yung kabigatan, maayos na maayos. Maayos in the sense na ‘yung kalagayan ng mga pamilya, kahit medyo congested, malinis ‘yung lugar,” she said.
“Kinausap natin ‘yung mga tao. Steady supply naman ‘yung pagkain. Nagpapasalamat tayo sa mga volunteers kasi maayos na maayos ‘yung pamamalakad,” she added.
She then visited the women weavers of Barangay Dayawan in Iligan City.
She was also briefed by some local officials and the military about the situation in Marawi City and in the evacuation centers where the displaced residents are temporarily staying.
Robredo came from a gala event in Los Angeles recently and had some private time afterwards to help her eldest daughter, Aika, who is enrolled at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Mid-Career Master in Public Administration program.
(with a report from Reuters)
