COTABATO CITY – A group of Filipinos, who are now citizens of Switzerland, has pooled their own money to donate to Muslims who were displaced by fierce fighting between security forces and ISIS militants in the besieged city of Marawi in the southern Philippine province of Lanao del Sur.
The money, sent through Sammy Said, a radio announcer of the Radyo Mindanao in Zamboanga City, was handed over to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao through Director Amir Mawallil, of the Bureau of Public Information and concurrent Executive Director of the Office on Bangsamoro Youth Affairs in Cotabato City.
The donation will be coursed to the ARMM Humanitarian and Emergency Action Response Team which is in charge in the distribution of food aid and relief packs to over 200,000 evacuees in different centers in Iligan City and Lanao del Sur.
The donors have shunned to be interviewed and even asked not to be identified, saying, their assistance need not be in the media. But the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner managed to get some of the identities of the big-hearted and compassionate Filipinos by their first names as Angelina, Jay, Myra, Louise, Elvie, Sayma, Marieta and Jang – all residing in Geneva, the second most populous city in Switzerland after Zürich.
They also sent aid for residents of Zamboanga City affected by the attacks launched by the Moro National Liberation Front in September 2013. The street battles lasted 3 weeks. (Mindanao Examiner)
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