Relief operations to 12,256 individuals displaced by the ongoing military operation against the Maute terror group in Butig, Lanao del Sur, has commenced in full swing.
A report sent by Corrine Tabua, Lanao del Sur provincial social welfare officer, to representatives before the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Local Government Unit Summit held at the SMX center here noted that the relief distribution, which began Wednesday, is currently going on in the Butig area.
Assisting the Lanao del Sur provincial social welfare office is the region’s Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team (HEART), a convergence of ARMM agencies countering various effects of disasters in the region.
So far, the ARMM-HEART has distributed 2,506 relief food packs in evacuation centers set up at the Butig poblacion and Butig Elementary School, the report said.
Heading the relief distribution is ARMM Vice Governor Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman Jr., concurrent ARMM social welfare secretary.
At least eight of 16 villages in Butig were severely affected since last week after an estimated 300 members of the terror group besieged the municipality.
Three of the eight villages were identified as Ragayan, Sundab and Sumdig.
The ARMM-HEART said 3,137 displaced individuals are staying inside the evacuation centers while the remaining 9,119 individuals are staying either in houses of relatives in safe villages or in nearby Marawi City.
Butig town has a population of 19,303 people. (PNA)
