Mother of six and a grandmother to nine, Prof. Dalomabi Bula, Dolly to her colleagues, lived a relatively normal life before the Marawi Siege on May 23, 2017. The inhuman devastation of Marawi City has left them, natives of the area, also referred to as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), homeless and degraded. Neighboring cities and provinces in Mindanao mistook them for terrorists and evil people. Eleven thousand families in 24 barangays in Ground Zero or the most affected area in Marawi were finally allowed to return home in April 2018.
Prof. Dolly is well known in the Academe. She finished her AB English Degree at the Dansalan College in Marawi and her Masters in Education Degree at the Ateneo De Davao University. As a true proponent of Moro education she went on to complete her Doctorate Degree in Language Studies at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro. She retired in 2014 from the Mindanao State University as a Literature Professor.
Up to the present, the daily airstrikes in Marawi that lasted from May to October of 2017 are still clear in the memories of the majority of IDPs. She is among the few who stood up and initiated dialogues with Moro leaders in fighting for their right to return home. A member of the Reclaiming Marawi Movement and the Let Me Go Home Movement, age did not become a hindrance in her attendance to protests and rallies. Her literary prowess was instrumental in drafting resolutions and position papers of the IDPs.
Her poem “Meranaw Ako” (I am a Meranaw) which she recited in front of the Administration Building of the MSU main campus during the Solidarity Peace Walk for Marawi on February 19, 2018, sent many Marawi natives teary-eyed and some even crying, reminiscent of the devastation they have witnessed.
Prof. Dalomabi Bula was among the Bangsamoro Women Advocate Awardee in 2022 under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, who dedicated her award to the victims of the Marawi Siege.
