Zamboanga City scrambles to relocate evacuees as death toll in cramped camp hits 109

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - The Zamboanga City government rushed to relocate to a new site thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) out from the cramped evacuation camp as death increased to 109 evacuees.

The evacuation came following a condemnation and rally by evacuees early this week, calling the local government incompetence as the cause of the death of the evacuees housed for seven months now inside the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex and along the coastal road of R.T Lim Boulevard.

The city government has been dealing in the dislodging of several latrines as the stinky complex have also affected the nearby state-run Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) and even the City Council building. 

Gamar Hassan, acting as the focal person of the affected evacuees, blamed the delay of the rehabilitation effort which would pave for the immediate return of the affected residents to their respective former places.

“The government was saying they will start the rehabilitation by March,” Hassan said, adding that from their tally death have already reached 109 persons, mostly children.

The government already identified the public elementary school of Mampang in an east coastal village as a temporary relocation site while bunk houses will be established temporarily while the rehabilitation of villages affected by the Moro National Liberation Front's (MNLF) 23-day siege take place.

However, planned relocation in Mampang was strongly opposed by the residents and village leaders who have barricaded the area to prevent the government from sending the IDPs in the school.

Mampang village chairman Leonard Aliangan said the school was once occupied by the evacuees but brought damages to the school properties where repairs were provided only by the village leaders and parents of the school children.

The villagers were also apprehensive on the sanitary culture of the evacuees observing the current condition of the camp site.

The local government has been looking to transfer IDPs from the sports complex and the boulevard to a much safer and more favorable environment to curtail the morbidity rate in the said evacuation camps.

Assistant City administrator Elmeir Apolinario met with village chairman Aliangan and dialogued with the apprehensive community assuring the government full support to ensure orderly in the temporary relocation of the IDPs.

A similar plan earlier to relocate in the adjacent Barangay in Talon-Talon also met a strong opposition.