MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 03 December) – Some local government units have offered to fetch students at Mindanao State University in Marawi City who want to go home after the indefinite suspension of classes following a bombing that killed four persons and wounded several others during a Catholic mass inside the Mohammad Ali Dimaporo Gymnasium inside the campus.
But in a statement, the MSU Emergency Task Force said there is “no advise or recommendation for a lockdown or the need to evacuate the university constituents in campus” and that based on the assessment of the internal security of the campus, “the University is secured.”
It urged the university constituents to remain “calm but cautious” and for the students to “remain in their dormitories, boarding houses, and homes inside the campus until further notice.
On Sunday morning, the MSU in a statement suspended classes and all academic activities in the university’s main campus in Marawi City “until further notice.
The Task Force’s statement, however, may have come a bit late as several LGUs had made arrangements for a free ride home.
Lawyer Race del Rosario, head of the Public Relations at the Butuan City Sangguniang Panlungsod said in his Facebook post on Sunday that the LGU of Marawi had allowed them to send vehicles to fetch Butuanon students.
He said they have a team that is creating a database of these students. He posted a Google form on which the students can provide their names, contact numbers, addresses in Butuan and in Marawi.
Nordette Ann Pamplona Rabago announced on Facebook that Mayor Grelina Lim of Baroy, Lanao del Norte told her vehicles will be sent to fetch students from the said town.
Rabago said the LGU of Lala, Lanao del Norte asked her to determine how many students from the town are going home.
The responses from the two LGUs came after Rabago posted on Facebook if the province of Lanao del Norte could provide free transport for the students.
On Sunday afternoon, the LGU of Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental had organized a team from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to pick up students from the city and other parts of the province and bring them home.
Mayor Freddie Siao of Iligan City announced on his Facebook page that the LGU would fetch students from the city as soon as they could get a clearance from the Philippine National Police.
Siao said all students, even non-Iliganons, Christians or Muslims, will be allowed to ride.
In Surigao del Norte, Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers has initiated an “extraction team” in collaboration with other LGUs in Surigao del Norte and the Junior Chamber International-Surigao Nickel, a non-government civic organization, to bring home MSU students who are from Surigao del Norte and even Dinagat and Surigao del Sur.
JCI-Surigao Nickel member King Mordeno said they are coordinating with blast survivors who are from Surigao and other students in Surigao for their safe return home.
“We have prepared vehicles for them,” he said.
Barbers said the students’ parents sought their help to bring the students home.
The MSU Task Force assured the university will provide for the students’ needs in the boarding houses and dormitories with the help of the provincial and city Disaster Risk Reduction and Management offices. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews with a report from Roel Catoto)
