World Refugee Day

Photo c/o unhcr.org

43 years ago, I had my first encounter with refugees.  It was 1974, when Jolo was attacked and burned.  Joloanos fled the town and some were housed in the school buildings at the Zamboanga State College campus, where I was a freshman.  I remember it was the 2nd semester, around February, when helicopters started flying in the dead and wounded.  When the chopper doors were closed they were ferrying the dead and when it was open, it was the wounded.  Back then it was a fight between the Philippine military and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

It was Commodore Romulo Espaldon, commandant of the Southwest Command (Sowescom) who was instrumental in ferrying the refugees via the Philippine Navy ships to Zamboanga City.  Although he was from Bicol, in Sorsogon, he truly loved Mindanao, it's people and land.  This became more evident years later, when he retired from military service and started to serve in the civilian government.

I can't recall the name of the ships nor what time they started to arrive.  But I can vaguely recall that I went to the pier in the city to see the arrival of the refugees from the conflict in Jolo.  Some of them came on board the huge, grey colored LST's, landing ship tanks, that perhaps were donated or purchased from the U.S. Navy.  They were the ones wherein the bow (front) part of the ship will open up for people and vehicles to alight.

I see heaps of parallelisms between the burning of Jolo in 1974 and to what is happening in Marawi in 2017---the actors, the people, Mindanao, Islam, Christianity.  In both conflicts, it's always the civilians---men, women and children, who get caught in the middle.  Nothing has changed though.  It's still a fight for the land, only this time, there is an element of ruthlessness by the Maute group who are identified with the planet's newest bad guy ISIS.

I can only offer my prayers and hope that this too shall pass.  And that those who have lost love ones, will find peace and serenity as they struggle and cope to live another day without the love of their life.

P.S. please click this link if you want to read a 1st hand account of the Jolo-caust.