Soliman admits failure to complete transitory homes for Zamboanga refugees

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman. FILE PHOTO

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman admitted Tuesday that her department had failed to deliver on a promise of better transitory shelters for residents displaced by month-long violence in the city in September 2013.

More than 1,000 families are still languishing on the grandstand of the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex on R.T. Lim Boulevard here.

During a visit here last Sept. 5, Soliman said she expected that by December 15, the displaced families would be living in new transitory homes. But on Tuesday, she told the Inquirer that the government had missed the deadline.

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

Soliman said the transitional shelters intended for the displaced residents had not been built on time.

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

Salazar said while there was no evidence to prove that the temporary shelters were also substandard, it was better to put the construction under review and tight inspection.

But she pointed out that the relocation effort was not a total failure as some families had been relocated to Mampang village.

“As much as we would have wanted to have the grandstand cleared, the conditions right now are not conducive,” Salazar said.

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

But the National Housing Authority predicted that the transfer would be carried out in June at the earliest.