Zambo residents salvage remains of homes

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Residents of conflict-torn Zamboanga districts started salvaging yesterday metal scraps and other remains of their homes destroyed during the three-week siege last month.

The residents sold the scraps in junkshops, hoping the proceeds could help them build a new home on the same lot where their former houses once stood.

They managed to retrieve galvanized sheets, forks, spoons, iron bars and grills, wires, hinges and nails, which they sold at P3 to P8 per kilo.

Rendam Unaid, 45, whose house once stood near the swamp, was helping her husband gather nails from fallen concrete walls and charred wooden poles at Paniran resettlement site in Barangay Sta. Catalina.

The local Crisis Management Committee has opened the village of Sta. Catalina for civilians to check on what remain of their properties.

Sta. Catalina was one of the four villages flattened by the 22-day firefight between the Misuari-led faction of the Moro National Liberation Front and government security forces.

The three others were Rio Hondo, Mariki, and Sta. Barbara.

“We hope to raise money for the construction of a new house. It’s so sad seeing this, but we need to move on. We don’t like staying at the evacuation center,”  Unaid said.

Muin Pangutan, 48, was heartbroken at the sight of his ruined property. He could not run to his neighbor for consolation as everyone has his or her own misery to deal with.

“It’s hard to explain what I’m feeling right now. Before we came to live here, our former home was also destroyed in a fire,” he said.

Like Unaid, Pangutan said they would collect scraps from the ruins of their properties and try to build a new home.

Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said the city is starting to recover as people began returning to their homes.

“We have started with baby steps and in due time, with the help and support of God and the national and local agencies including our international partners, we will be on full swing, implementing our plans,” Salazar said.

She said a huge part of the area, particularly Rio Hondo, Sta. Barbara and Mariki, incurred the most damage as houses were either burned or riddled with bullets, and the power, water, telephone and cable lines destroyed.

The mayor said the crisis management committee would meet with Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson for the debris management.