Evacuees loiter in the shade inside a warehouse in Pikit, North Cotabato. People numbering in the hundreds of thousands (half a million, by one estimate) were displaced from their homes in Central Mindanao by armed clashes between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces last August. Locally called "bakwits" (from "evacuate," it is a colloquial term for evacuees), they were forced to endure inhospitable conditions in makeshift evacuation centers, where they faced hunger, unsanitary environs, an unforgiving weather, and uncertainty.
A couple of evacuees in a warehouse in Pikit, North Cotabato try to sleep off the nightmare that is their sudden flight.
Ashes are what remains of a house in Midsayap, North Cotabato after a skirmish between government troops and rebel forces. People numbering in the hundreds of thousands (half a million, by one estimate) were displaced from their homes in Central Mindanao by armed clashes between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces last August.
Makeshift tents are set up in the muddy surroundings of a warehouse in Pikit, North Cotabato for evacuees to take refuge in.
Evacuees fill every inch of the concrete bleachers of the parish gymnasium in Pikit, North Cotabato.
An evacuee tries to get by with almost nothing in a trading center-turned-evacuation center in Aleosan, North Cotabato.
An enterprising evacuee transfers his entire sari-sari store to a warehouse in Pikit, North Cotabato, to where he and his neighbors fled.
An evacuee with her laundry navigates a maze of densely packed tents in a park-turned-evacuation center in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
Evacuees gather around a water pump to do their laundry at the back of a public school-turned-evacuation center in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
Evacuees in Mamasapano, Maguindanao converge beside a truck loaded with sacks of rice. They wait for their turn to claim sacks of rice being distributed by a non-government organization.
Evacuees clutching claim stubs form a queue as a non-government organization prepares to distribute sacks of rice in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. Community and Family Services International (CFSI) personnel get ready to distribute sacks of rice from the World Food Programme to internally displaced people in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
A volunteer worker of the Department of Health in Mamasapano, Maguindanao takes a short break from the overwhelming task of assisting ailing evacuees.