The number of evacuees from Marawi City where fighting is approaching its third week nears 300,000, the regional Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said on Saturday..

There is a total of 59,358 displaced families that amount to 290,552 evacuees from six cities near Marawi, as of June 9, the OCD Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said in an emailed report to the Daily Manila Shimbun.

There are 37,278 evacuees in Iligan City, including home-based and evacuation center based, 46,465 displaced persons in Lanao Del Norte, 4,913 in Cagayan De Oro City, 1,736 in Misamis Oriental, 275 in Bukidnon and 199,885 in Lanao Del Sur, OCD-ARMM said.

OCD-ARMM said civilians casualties reached 35 as of June 7. Forty persons were hit by bomb explosion while 232 civilians were rescued based on records by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management.

“Bonggolo and Madaya Bridge were cleared by the military personnel, but civilians were not still allowed to access the area. MSU Marawi has already source of electricity from LASURECO. However, Marawi City has no source of electricity yet”, it said.

The cost of assistance of 12 different agencies totaled P78, 344,658 in which P43, 828,872 is for food and non-food items, P33, 042,485 for health assistance and P1, 473,300 for operational expenses. Alanna Ambi/DMS