Death stalks Zamboanga folk in shelters

FILOMENA Abdurahman, 31, embraces her son, year-old Al Kaiser, who died in Zamboanga City Medical Center after suffering from fever and diarrhea inside a shelter for evacuees who fled the terror attack on the city by Nur Misuari’s followers and the government offensive that followed it.
JULIE ALIPALA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

ZAMBOANGA CITY—They were able to escape death and injury during the terror attack by followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari in this city, but not diseases in evacuation centers where government sent them as soldiers flushed Misuari’s men out.

At least 87 city residents, who were forced to leave their homes and find sanctuary in government-designated evacuation centers, had died as a result of diseases in evacuation camps.

The latest fatality is 14-year-old Omar Sahid, who died on Tuesday at Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.

Sahid’s death brings to 87 the number of fatalities in evacuation centers where people fleeing the terror attack and the government offensive on Misuari’s followers sought shelter.

At Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex alone, a total of 118,819 evacuees are still living in what many described as squalid conditions.

“We all think that the (sports complex) grandstand is our dying place,” evacuee Omar Dalawis said.

Dalawis said the local and national governments had apparently forgotten about them. “We cannot find jobs. They (government) just choose who can work for food,” Dalawis said.

“We don’t even have money to buy basic needs like salt, sugar or medicine. We don’t have money to buy a white cloth to bury our dead,” Dalawis, a Muslim, added.

Gamar Hassan, an evacuee from Mariki village, said a child died on Feb. 7 and another the day after.

“Our government is preoccupied with sex scandals, like Vhong Navarro’s. No one has ever started a real probe why people are dying inside evacuation centers,” Hassan said.

Arpa Husaying, of the Philippine Council of Samah and Badjao, said a 2-year-old Badjao, Pula Anas, died from bronchopneumonia, while Jerry Julhari, a 10-month-old baby, died on Friday due to diarrhea.

“The Badjaos, when they beg from motorists, are not easily downed by illnesses, but when you control them in a place where they could hardly make a living, it’s like genocide,” Husaying told the Inquirer.

Husaying said the local and national governments should be made accountable for what was happening to the evacuees.

Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said she recognized the problem and proposed better monitoring of the camps.

Climaco said a medical mission, dubbed Servicio Corazon, would be conducted in the evacuation camps today, Thursday (Feb. 13).

Dr. Rodelin Agbulos, the city health officer, said official records, however, showed only 81 deaths.

“But one death is already alarming,” he said. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao