(Himamaylan CSWD office)Įvacuees have been told to stay away from their villages. Children undergo psycho-social activities in an evacuation site in Himamaylan City, where a week of clashes between government troops and rebels have displaced more than 18,000 individuals. While pursuit is ongoing in Himamaylan, the military has imposed a lockdown in Carabalan a bid to prevent rebels from slipping into the civilian population. The 303rd Infantry Brigade, the military command on Negros island, the country’s fourth largest, said they would continue pursuing the guerrillas.Īcross the border in Negros Oriental, the 62nd Infantry Battalion has also clashed with the NPA in the mountains of Guihulngan City twice in as many days since Wednesday, October 12. Six soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. (Marchel Espina) LockdownĬlashes in at least three villages in Barangay Carabalan, which has a population of nearly 13,000 have killed two soldiers and top rebel leader Romeo Nanta, also known as Juanito Magbanua, commanding officer of the NPA Apolinario Gatmaitan Command and spokesperson for the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Negros-Cebu-Bohol-Siquijor regional party committee. At the End Time Message Church in Barangay Caradioan, benches are arranged to give space for 27 evacuee families from Sitio Campayas, Barangay Carabalan. They’ll probably do the same if Caceres gives birth, but the mother of three hopes her new child would be gifted by a homecoming.

To give everyone space, they rearranged the church pews to give each family their own little spot.Īmid the trauma, evacuees and hosts chipped in to celebrate the birthday of a nine-year-old girl, to make up for the missing lechon (roasted pig) promised by the child’s late father. “God will provide,” the pastor’s wife said with good cheer. Turning on all the church’s air conditioners for the evacuees caused their electric bill to balloon by P15,000 in seven days. (Marchel Espina)ĭiaz-Romano took in 27 families or 125 individuals. Nine-month-pregnant Genijade Caseres crawled through dense shrubbery with her three young children as they fled clashes in Barangay Carabalan on October 6.

“I might give birth this month to a baby boy due to nervousness,” she said in Hiligaynon in their church refuge in Barangay Caradioan. In an interview with Rappler on Thursday, October 13, Caseres expressed a wish to go home. “Some of us were missing slippers, some had dropped their bags,” recalled Caceres of the collective sprint to safety.

War leaders clash of nations codes