Robin Padilla's daughter asks both sides to "end the war"

(MindaNews/15 September) – Actor Robin Padilla’s daughter has joined the clamor for a stop to the fighting between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Speaking in Talayan, a town in Maguindanao affected by renewed hostilities and where she led a distribution of relief goods for evacuees, Queenie Padilla appealed to both parties to stop fighting to give way to rehabilitation work.

Queenie was with the staff of her father’s Liwanag ng Kapayapaan Foundation and officials of the Office of Muslim Affairs-National Capital Region.

“Provide help and make a difference, our people, children, mothers are suffering,” said Queenie, who, like her father, has embraced Islam.

“I am happy I helped provide them with some relief goods but that is not enough. The longer they stay in crowded evacuation centers, the more they need food,” she said.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Francisco Duque today visited evacuees in Pikit, Cotabato displaced since August by renewed fighting between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Some 2,000 families have remained in at least 15 evacuation sites in the town, mostly house-based tents located along the Cotabato highway, data from the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office showed.

Duque, together with Governor Jesus Sacdalan, distributed medicines and some pre-pregnancy kits.

The secretary also handed the governor one million pesos as financial assistance for evacuees whose houses were razed or destroyed and for relatives of civilians who were killed when fighting erupted in Pikit and in other towns in North Cotabato last month.

Duque, in an interview over dxND, said his mission was part of President Arroyo’s promise to a group of evacuees from Mindanao that visited her last week in Malacanang.

It was during the meeting last Friday that Arroyo assured the evacuees of assistance from the national government.

The evacuees have asked the government to stop military operations against the MILF and resume peace talks with the rebel group. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)