DATU SALIBU, Maguindanao –Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have formally launched here a long-conceived campaign to send home thousands of war-displaced people, initially benefitting 360 affected families in a concerted effort to end their “state of misery” and bring them back to normal life.

ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo, representing acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong, led officials of government agencies and non-government entities including media practitioners in kicking off the campaign which aims to bring all the 16,131 conflict-affected families back to their places of origin.

The campaign initially brought home 360 families, composed of some 2,160 individuals, to barangay Pagatin here from their evacuation centers in nearby towns of Datu Odin Sinsuat and Datu Piang where they have been sheltered since they were displaced by fighting between rebels and government forces in mid-2008.

Sinarimbo, assisted by ARMM social welfare acting Secretary Pombae Kader, distributed food packages consisting of 25 kilos of rice, sardines and foods and non-food relief packages including mats, mosquito nets, malongs and other clothes and kitchen wares to all of the 360 families after an inaugural ceremony at Barangay Pagatin.

The food stuffs valued at some P365,000 were given by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG) while the non-food packages worth of equivalent sum were donated by a non-government organization from the United Kingdom and the Mindanao Emergency Response Network (MERN), campaign facilitators said.

In his brief message in vernacular at the ceremony, Sinarimbo said the activity was “just the beginning” of the long-process of bringing the evacuees back to normal life in their places of origin.

While the campaign aims to bring all the 16,131 displaced families back home in different batches, it would employ concerted physical and psychological interventions from ARMM government agencies, private relief organizations and foreign entities. “We will exert every resources and efforts possible to bring you all back to your homes, help you recover from the losses and regain the potentials that may make your young family members become better citizens,” the ARMM executive secretary, who himself was an evacuee during the martial law era, told the refugees.

In a subsequent press briefing in Cotabato City, Sinarimbo disclosed that the launching of the campaign had been postponed at least three times upon the request of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP).

He said that OPAPP and MinDA officials wanted that the efforts to bring the evacuees back home commence after the creation of a “national focal body” for the purpose.

“We could not wait further…because our evacuees have languished long in evacuation centers,” Sinarimbo said, citing the need to prepare the evacuees’ children to send them back to schools at the start of the coming school year.

Sinarimbo also reiterated the ARMM government’s assertion to administer funds and projects intended for evacuees and other residents in the autonomous region, saying that previous financial resources for the region had been spent in questionable fashion by government agencies from other regions.

At the press briefing, Sinarimbo and Kader confirmed reports that the government had allocated P500 million for the construction of some 3,300 core shelters for evacuees in ARMM, but only 1,700 units were actually built while the entire fund was spent up.