Army engineers to help Zamboanga folk rebuild homes

THE RUBBLE left by the 20-day fighting between government forces and Moro National Liberation Front fighters in Barangay (village) Santa Catalina, Zamboanga City. KARLOS MANLUPIG/INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Army will send military engineers to help in the rehabilitation of coastal villages damaged in the fighting between government forces and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels in Zamboanga City last month, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said on Wednesday.

In a talk with reporters, Gazmin said engineers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines would be deployed to Zamboanga City in the next few weeks as the police were winding up its clearing and mopping operations in the villages where MNLF fighters holed up for three weeks.

He said the rehabilitation of damaged houses and public infrastructure was the third phase of the government’s program to help residents of Zamboanga City recover from the attack.

“This new deployment of AFP engineers is [for the restoration of] the physical devastation and damage in ground zero [in the fighting] between government [forces] and MNLF [rebels],” Gazmin said.

He said military engineers would be sent to lead reconstruction projects in about 40 hectares of residential areas in the villages of Santa Catalina, Santa Barbara, Rio Hondo and adjacent villages that were “practically leveled to the ground.”