Zambo residents look for scraps to earn, rebuild their homes

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  - Displaced residents, mostly house owners inside the war-devastated district, began to salvage metals Thursday from their burnt and torn residences that would be sold at scrap shops, hoping the meager earning will help them build another home on the same lot.

The surviving residents, young and old, sift through their respective charred belongings,  retrieving twisted galvanized sheets, forks and spoons, iron bars, wires, grill hinges and even the smallest metal, including nails, to produce kilos of scrap piles that would be sold at P3 to P8 pesos a kilo.

Rendam Unaid, 45, who formerly owned a house with an adjacent stilt near the swamp, was helping her husband in picking up nails from  what was left of  concrete walls and wooden poles at Paniran resettlement site, Barangay Sta. Catalina.

The local Crisis Management Committee (CMC) opened Thursday the Sta. Catalina for the house owners and lot title owners to check their properties by batches and  on a block-by-block basis on a phase-in scheme to avoid chaos among the anxious displaced residents.

Sta. Catalina was one of the barangays that was flattened by the 22-day gunbattle when more than 400 rebels of the Nur Misuari faction  of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) attempted to take over  the city to state their independence claim last month,  displacing more than 100,000 people from the conflict zone.

The other barangays directly affected and devastated by the gunbattle and series of fire incidents were Rio Hondo, Mariki, and Sta. Barbara.

“Maybe from what we could salvage we can raise little funds to start erecting another pole into another house. We really felt equally sad and bad seeing this horrible ground, but we need to rise up and build again rather than staying at the cramped evacuation center," Unaid said in deciding to rebuild their houses in the devastated community.

But Muin Pangutan, 48, was distraught upon seeing his ruined properties with no neighbor to console  him as most of them were equally dealing with the devastation.

"Mukhang mahirap sagutin kung ano ang nararamdaman ko. Dahil bago kami lumipat ditto nasunugan din kami sa dati naming lugar,” Pangutan said.

Just like Unaid, Pangutan said they will begin the step by collecting all the scraps among their burned  properties, hoping it would help them rebuild another home.

Crisis management committee chairman Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar announced that the recovery and rehabilitation of this city is beginning with the people starting to return to their homes.

“We have started with baby steps and in due time, with the help and support of God and the the different national and local agencies including our international partners, we will be on full swing—implementing our plan  with the overriding goal of building better for our children—better houses, better homes and definitely a better and brighter Zamboanga,” Salazar said.

Salazar said a big part of the area — particularly barangays Rio Hondo, Sta. Barbara and Mariki – is totally damaged; houses are burned if not riddled with bullets; power, water, telephone and cable lines are destroyed.

She said the extent of the damage requires initial services of the city utilities such as electric and water district, city engineers’ office, general services and the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH).

She said the crisis management committee will meet with Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson to discuss the area's rehabilitation.

“This is the reason why the implementation of the phase in scheme in the different affected barangays will have to be done by schedule in order to ensure order and most importantly, safety of our constituents,’ Salazar said.

However, residents who entered the conflict-hit district are refusing to leave the area for fear they might lose their place and unsure of what  the government plan  is for their community. -  Roel Pareño