Soliman admits deadline for Zamboanga shelters unmet

A FAMILIAR scene at the Don Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex, home to 1,000 families displaced by the terror attack on Zamboanga City by followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari. JULIE S. ALIPALA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman admitted on Tuesday that she had failed to deliver on her promise of better transitory shelters for displaced residents here by Dec. 15.

More than 1,000 families displaced by the terror attack on the city by followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari are still languishing at the grandstand of the Don Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex on R.T. Lim Boulevard here.

During a visit here on Sept. 5, Soliman said she expected that by Dec. 15, the displaced families would be living in transitory sites already.

But on Tuesday, she told Inquirer that the government missed the deadline.

“We failed to meet it, the projected effort of emptying the sports complex by December 15 was not met,” she said.

“Mainly because we were not able to build the transitional shelters in time for everyone to be accommodated,” Soliman added.

The evacuees are residents displaced when fighting erupted between government forces and Moro National Liberation Front members in September last year. During the fighting, houses were razed, while some were destroyed by bullets and bombs.

Earlier, Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar ordered the suspension of the construction of transitory sites following the collapse of some units being built on Lustre Street.

Salazar said while no evidence proved that the transitory shelters were also substandard, it was better to suspend construction pending review and inspection.

But she said the relocation effort was not a total failure, citing the transfer of some families to the relocation site in Mampang village.

“As much as we would have wanted to have the grandstand cleared, the conditions right now are not conducive,” Salazar said, adding that roads in the transitory site “are not passable and the drainage system is stuck in mud.”

Soliman said she expected that by Jan. 30, the grandstand would have been cleared of all 1,371 families and the evacuees could transfer to the transitory sites.

But the National Housing Authority predicted that the earliest that the transfer could be done is June yet.

Saadia Alfad, 37 and mother of three, told Inquirer that their lives are getting worse inside the sports complex.

“We no longer believe in their promises. These are just words and nothing else,” said Alfad, a used clothes vendor.

Alfad and her family are among those still staying at the sports complex. She catches on her sleep at her stall inside the Sta. Cruz Market. At night, she returns to the sports complex but has to watch over her three children, protecting them from child molesters and drug peddlers.

A resident in the transitory site in Masepla in Mampang

also said their situation has worsened due to lack of water and toilets.

Salazar admitted that there is a sanitation problem in Masepla, aside from the site’s distance from the highway. Residents in the site need to walk at least 2 km to reach the highway.