The Unspoken Turmoil of the Siege: Unraveling the Lived Experiences of the Bereaved Mothers of Child Soldiers in Lanao del Sur, Philippines

The occurrence of the Marawi Siege on the 23rd of May 2017 caused a variety of negative implications among the residents of Lanao del Sur, Philippines, both from their psychological and physical aspects. Recruitment of child soldiers, as part of the extremist groups’ military forces, is one of the highly concerning issues during the siege. Existing accounts, including anecdotal evidence, consistently revealed that a number of those recruited child soldiers died during the siege. Significantly, literature suggests that losing a child has a detrimental impact on the psychological and physical well-being of the mother. Henceforth, this study aimed to explore the lived experiences, precisely the psychological challenges and coping mechanisms of the bereaved mothers of child soldiers recruited by extremist groups who died during the Marawi Siege. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and employed semi-structured interviews among three (3) participants selected through the purposive sampling method. After rigorous thematic analysis, the researchers identified three (3) major themes: ‘Onset of Mental Turmoil,’ ‘Grief’s Emotional Landscape,’ and ‘Threads of Healing.’ The results indicate that participants encountered profound emotional distress, behavioral and cognitive difficulties, and few social impairments since the time that their children were recruited and their deaths were reported. Apart from that, the participants had trouble managing these psychological challenges despite their loss-oriented and emotion-focused coping mechanisms. Lastly, the participants were still grieving and had not categorically accepted their children’s deaths in the present.