Zambo refugees say it’s still unsafe to go back home

DESPITE government pronouncements that war is over in Zamboanga City, the displaced people who have sought refuge in Cebu City believe it is not yet safe to return home.

“We don’t believe the government’s declaration that it is over. They don’t live in the area, we know what is going on there,” said 32-year-old Johann Kahal, one of the refugees. “There was even one man who was hit by a stray bullet in the head as he was having a meal,” he added.

Kahal said his relative called him and told him that some Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fighters burned nearly 100 houses located 300 meters behind their home in barangay Talon-Talon in Zamboanga City.

Last Saturday, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the MNLF forces were “reduced to about to two or three remaining stragglers.” But Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas said government forces would still have to clear 30 to 40 hectares of rubble before it could allow residents to return. Sporadic firing also continued in several areas.

“If my sister would call us here in Cebu and tell us that thesituation there is clear, then we would go home right away to Zamboanga,” Kahal told Cebu Daily News.

The refugees fled Zamboanga City last Tuesday and arrived in Cebu the next day.

Kahal said they could feel the discrimination in Cebu City as their neighbors in barangay Punta Princesa are suspicious of their moves.

One of the residents in Tres de Abril St. who declined to be named said he is wary of the newly-arrived refugees.

“Although there are children with them, we still don’t trust them because there is still a possibility that those men who arrived are MNLF,” he added. Kahal said “they cannot please everyone.”

“We know for ourselves that we are not members of MNLF,” he said.

Mark Vill Roldan, one of those refugees, said he’s finding it hard to sleep in the truck especially during rains.

“We just need to be patient as of now, everything will be back to normal again,” he said.

For now, they’re asking for food, medicines and stress debriefing sessions especially for their children from the Cebu City government and the public. Kahal’s one year old son Alzehn underwent a checkup at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) after incurring fever.

“I hope there will be more people who could help us. Our children here are suffering from fever, coughs, and colds,” he said. / Michelle Joy L. Padayhag, Correspondent With an Inquirer report