New homes rise on stilts for Zamboanga folk displaced by terror attack

NO MORE makeshift huts and floating shanties. The Zamboanga City government has started turning over white houses on stilts to families displaced by the 2013 terror attack on the city by followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari. JULIE ALIPALA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Annisa Bahad and her older sister Nurhalisa cut classes on a Monday to rush to the site of a housing project for families displaced by the terror attack on the city by followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari in 2013 and the government armed response to it.

Annisa, 12, and Nurhalisa, 13, both Grade 7 pupils at Al-Makhdum Arabic School in the village of Mariki, were anticipating their family to be among the beneficiaries.

While Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar was preparing to cut the ribbon during the awarding rites, she saw the two girls, giggling. She called them and told them to help her cut the ribbon.

As the names of the families were called, the two girls broke into cries of joy. Their family got the house tagged “C21 No. 65.”

“It’s our first time to get inside a house we can call our own. This is a complete home. We are happy and we will now bid goodbye to our tent at the grandstand,” Annisa said, still giggling.

The girls’ family was among the thousands of evacuees that crowded the grandstand of Don Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex on RT Lim Boulevard in 2013 when Misuari’s followers occupied parts of the city and government soldiers came to drive them away.

Conditions at the grandstand had been appalling and a new home is most welcome for the Bahad family.

“Thanks to Allah for answering our prayers,” Nurhalisa said.

Aside from the Bahad family, at least 126 others received new homes that the National Housing Authority (NHA) turned over to the city government.

Costing P175,000, each unit has an area of 22 square meters. It has toilets and terraces.

Each house is also connected to a small pathway that leads to the village’s main footbridge.

Al-Khwarizmi Indanan, district manager of NHA here, said at least 642 beneficiaries awaited the turnover of the housing unit, but only 127 units had been completed.

Indanan said the NHA is optimistic that the rest of the units would be completed by July 18.

Mayor Salazar said “logistical constraints” delayed the completion of the entire project.

Hadja Palma Hasim, Mariki village chair, said the houses were the “greatest gift” her constituents got in years. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao