Zamboanga City says evacuees not hidden from UN exec

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Mayor Ma. Isabelle Salazar has asked leaders of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to come to the city and “have a close encounter” with residents in the transitory and relocation sites after they were displaced during the rampage of followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari in 2013.

Salazar issued the statement after the CBCP claimed that the city government hid the families during the visit of United Nations Special Rapporteur Chaloka Beyani late last month.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch also made a similar report, citing a statement issued by Beyani that was posted on the UN website.

Erroneous

On Monday, the city government branded both reports erroneous. Elmer Apolinario, the city administrator, said the transfer of evacuees from Don Joaquin Memorial Sports Complex was “on the volition of the IDPs (internally displaced persons) themselves, who wanted to be returned to their places of origin.”

On Sunday, Archbishop Rolando Tirona, who heads the Catholic Church’s justice and peace ministry, said hundreds of IDPs were removed from the sports complex, which served as an evacuation center for thousands of families displaced during the rampage of followers of Misuari, founding chair of the Moro National Liberation Front.

“We should be truthful. We should face the truth and help these people instead of pretending because it’s totally wrong,” Tirona was quoted as saying in the Inquirer report, which appeared on Sunday. He said the city government’s action of hiding the evacuees was tantamount to “making fun of the poor.”

Beyani expressed concern over “some issues, including the closure of the grandstand, where families had taken refuge after the crisis, just prior to my visit without ensuring adequate housing solutions for some families who did not want to move to transitional shelters and wished to return to their original locations.”

Apolinario said the allegations, which came out in an Inquirer report on Monday, were erroneous. “When we did the transfer or relocation,” he said, “this was upon the instance of the presentations made by their leaders and barangay chairs.”

“We deny [the report] categorically. There is no truth to the information given out that we tried to hide the IDPs from UN Special Rapporteur Beyani,” he told reporters here. “There were issues that … say we tried to hide away the IDPS. As you very well know, we never do things without coordination.”

The city official denied any “intimidation on the part of the government” during the transfer. “Everything was done aboveboard, everything was done properly in coordination with humanitarian partners,” he said.

Salazar said: “It would be wise that the CBCP must come down here. The call of His Holiness Pope Francis is mercy and compassion. If you are to live in Christian vocation as lay people and as religious, then we have to have mercy and compassion.”

‘Dignified’

As mayor, she said, “not only do we apply mercy and compassion, but we try to ensure that durable solutions would be given to the IDPs by putting above all their immediate needs for shelter, but these must be dignified,” she said

“Why we brought the people to Masepla? The question from the [local government unit], you in the CBCP, you in the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), have you come up with a place where we can relocate the IDPs?” Salazar asked.

Apolinario said Beyani’s concerns over the lack of water, light and shelters had been “duly noted and immediately acted upon by the local government.”

He said the transfer of evacuees to the transitory sites was actually long overdue. The deadline, originally set for March, was deferred several times in consideration of the requests and needs of the IDPs, he added. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao