BRIDGE FALLS DOWN Representatives Abelardo Benitez (in striped shirt) and Celso Lobregat, Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar and other officials clamber up the footbridge that collapsed into murky water. The bridge leads to the relocation site at Sitio Hongkong in Barangay Rio Hondo. —PHOTO COURTESY OF RMN ZAMBOANGA
Falling off a collapsed bridge at a housing project in Zamboanga City on Thursday was bad karma for the government officials who supposedly failed to act on the “dismal” state of housing projects, the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) said on Friday.
Kadamay said that while the video clip that showed lawmakers and National Housing Authority (NHA) officials falling into murky waters appeared to be comical, it highlighted the seriousness of the problem facing government-built shelters.
“NHA officials seem to have gotten a taste of their own medicine as they experienced firsthand the perils in government housing sites,” the group said in a statement. NHA spokesperson Elsie Trinidad on Friday apologized for the mishap, saying the agency “is going to look closely into this case.” —MELVIN GASCON