400 Muslim pilgrims arrive in Cebu en route to Saudi Arabia

Intense fighting has left Zamboanga City in crisis but Muslim pilgrims found a way to continue their travel to Mecca.

At least 400 Muslim pilgrims, including over a hundred who got stranded due to the conflict in Zamboanga City, arrived in Cebu yesterday to catch flights that would take them to Saudi Arabia to fulfill their religious obligation.

The first batch arrived in two commercial flights from Tawi-Tawi in the morning.

Another batch was ferried for free by an air force C-130 plane that landed at the Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan island.

The pilgrims were escorted by air force troopers to four buses waiting at the tarmac and were taken to the departure area of the adjacent Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

The pilgrims were set to take commercial flights to Manila last night where they will take a connecting flight to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia en route to Mecca, the holiest city in Islam where the Hajj is performed.

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so at least once in his or her lifetime.

The crisis in Zamboanga will not stop Muslim-Filipinos from performing the Hajj, said Malo B. Manonggiring, director for the Visayas of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.

Hamsira Harad, 43, a native of Basilan province was among those who took the air force mercy flight to Cebu.

“I was very nervous when we arrived in Zamboanga,” she told Cebu Daily News.

From Basilan, Harad and her husband Aldam, took a ferry to Zamboanga City where they would have taken a flight to Manila en route to Saudi Arabia.

“People were out on the streets and I saw houses burning. I was about to cry,” she said.

All commercial flights to and from Zamboanga were cancelled when the fighting erupted Monday.

Pilgrims like the Harad couple were left stranded in the city, prompting the government to mount mercy flights. Another air force flight is scheduled to arrive today carrying about 200 pilgrims.

Hamsira said security was tight at the Zamboanga airport. Their luggage were thoroughly checked before they were allowed to board the Hercules aircraft.

“Our bags were checked four times, but I understand why they did that because of safety reasons,” she said.

Lt. Col. Marciano Jesus Guevara, chief of Civil Military Operations of the 2nd Air Division of the Philippine Air Force, said they’re expecting more pilgrims to arrive from Zamboanga City today.

“It is an act of bayanihan,” he said referring to the PAF flights.

According to Director Manonggiring there are about 8,000 pilgrims from the Philippines who will go on a Hajj which will culminate in the celebration of the Eid al Adha next month.

The pilgrims will stay in Mecca for 30 days.