Inug-ug is one of the villages in Pagalungan Maguindanao. It is said that
Inug-ug before is a peaceful village located not very far from the town
of Pagalungan. The people in Pagalungan are mostly Moslem. Since there
were encounters in Inug-ug the people were force to move to the town, and
left their farm to escape the war between the armed men. They just only
went there during daytime to work and at night they went back to their
houses.
I talked one of the resident, named zipudin.
According to him, it s started since year
2000, when the government soldier meet the
Muslim rebels in Inug-ug.
Before, there were many houses that are built
in that village, but because of the encounter,
the houses are also burned, including the
school and both of them never accepted who
of them was responsible of burning. The people
have nothing to do but to left their farm
and find the place that is safe from the
bullet and bombs. If how many times in the
year are having war, the evacuations are
also happened the same, until same of the
residents decided not to build a house in
their village anymore. They looked for a
land or lot near the town for them to build
a house wherein they knew that they are safe
from war.
We went in Inug-ug on April 9,2003.My eyes is roaming around in the wide
fields, that are planted with different kind of plants, but noticeably
the trunk of the coconut tree that was hurtled by the bullet. I also noticed
the special school, which I heard that the school was established through
the collaboration of the resident of Inug-ug, but all of the sudden when
we comeback on the next day we heard the news that the school was burned
the night of April 9, because there were fighting happened again. The school
was intentionally built for the children who did not continue their studies
because they are affected of the fight between the government soldiers
and the Muslim rebels, but all of a sudden the school was burned.
The encounter is not only happened in the village of Inug-ug but also in
the different village of Pagalungan, wherein the armed men are possible
to be seen. Since then they called their place” THE GHOST TOWN” because
of war that continuously happened in the different village in their municipality.
Ghost because they are afraid of the sudden fight between those armed men,
which seems like a ghost in the night that suddenly appeared which you
don’t know where they came from. The people their compared their town
to the ghost that can be seen in the night because the fight usually happened
at night, and they can hear the simultaneous explosion, that it compelled
them to escaped and left their houses, animals and sometimes all of their
important belongings. The most important for them is their lives and the
lives of the children.
Whenever there were encounters they went to the evacuation center. They
occupied the different schools in their town that are safe. The government
agencies were given their support as well as the Diocese of Kidapawan.
But because of the large number of the evacuees in the different barangay’s
the contribution of food is lacking in addition for these, the place is
not safety for them because some are only sleeping in a small tent and
it is not safety especially for the babies, and that they are getting ill.
The evacuees are not only needed for food, shelter and medicine, but above
all they are longing for peace, so that they can go back to their village
and live normally without hesitation and fear. But how they can go back
to normal life when such fighting is separately happened in the different
barangay of Pagalungan, between the government soldiers and the Muslim
rebels. How they can find peace that they are longing for the very long
time. We hope that the government officials should make the immediate solution
in this problem. We are also asking for every individual who have a kind
heart to help them and continue to pray for peace.