by AL JACINTO
Publish in Manila times
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar on
Tuesday led the inauguration of government housing units for the victims
of last year’s rebel attack that killed and wounded over 400 people.
The commemoration of the siege by members of the Moro National
Liberation Front has reopened the bitter memories of the war that raged
for three weeks and affected more than 120,000 people in Zamboanga, and
hundreds of thousands more in nearby Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Salazar reminded residents to stay vigilant as she led officials in
“Honoring the Heroes, Commemorating the Brave and [Stay] United in
Defending the Flag.”
She and other officials led the ground-breaking ceremony of houses on
stilts in the village of Mariki following a mass blood donation and the
hand-over of 120 newly-built housing units for war refugees in Santa
Catalina village.
Catholic churches also rung its bells simultaneously and offered masses followed by candle-lighting.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, who was here
recently, has already declared the end of humanitarian stage for war
refugees in Zamboanga, but she stressed that government program to
ensure total recovery and rehabilitation of those affected by the siege
will continue. She did not elaborate.
The stretch of the Roseller Lim Boulevard that was dotted by hundreds
of refugee tents has been cleared last week and those that occupied the
coastline had been transferred to various bunkhouses in different
transitory sites here, although a few thousand refugees still remain
inside the sport complex nearby while awaiting new housing units from
the government.
Just recently, Salazar also handed over more than 160 duplex housing units to refugees in Santa Catalina.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development also committed to
construct an additional 30 bunkhouses at the transitory site in Mampang
village that can accommodate over 700 families.
At least 170 refugees had died from diseases in evacuation sites due
to lack of sufficient medical and emergency facilities there.
President Benigno Aquino 3rd visited Zamboanga City in December and
assured the refugees of the government’s rehabilitation efforts, saying
his administration is working closely with various agencies to rebuild
houses destroyed during the war.
Aquino said the government already spent some P273.8 million in
relief aid and cash-for-work program for those displaced by the fighting
and that he allocated an additional P3.5 billion for the rehabilitation
efforts here.
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