MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 06 June) — A simple appeal to our brothers and sisters in Islam: Allah Al-Mighty is witness to all the efforts we’re doing in order to ease the tension and help secure the residents in the areas affected and bring them to safety and extend provisions and medical attention to our evacuees.
We’re doing these humanitarian efforts because like you, we are also victims of this conflict. I haven’t seen my family and my children since this crisis started because I’ve devoted my time at the operation center working around the clock, appearing before media to assure the public that we can rise again from this fall and even join rescue attempts risking the possibility of getting shot.
But I don’t blame anyone. I don’t. Because I know that I’m still fortunate compare to those whose mothers they couldn’t find, brothers they couldn’t locate, families that got separated from and the children who hardly manage to utter a word yet saw damage that no man could ever describe.
I don’t complain. I help. Not because it is part of my job but because I believe that if we don’t help each other, then none of us will survive this ordeal. We either fall together or stand united. It’s our choice.
But I choose to act and contribute something even if many still complain and fault us. It’s easy to find fault in others but difficult to accept one for yourself.
Let us channel our energy to doing humanitarian work and help our people regain their self-worth. This the first time Marawi City has experienced a crisis this huge.
The damage is unparalleled. The human cost is staggering. Why should we waste our time and energy faulting others when we can support each other instead?
Again, we are doing our best to face this conflict head on. We do not expect thank you greetings. We only expect your understanding and to be patient that in Allah’s time, together, we shall rise again and make Marawi City better than before. May God protect you and your loved ones. Assalamu Alaikom Wa rahmatullah.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Our Marawi is open to anyone who wishes to share his/her thoughts on what is happening in Marawi, the country’s lone Islamic City. Zia Alonto Adiong is Majority Floor Leader at the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. He is currently the spokesperson of the Provincial Crisis Management Committee. He posted this appeal on his Facebook account on 5 June 2017)
