Zamboanga City tiptoes on recovery

3 October 2013

A message at the south fence of Edwin Andrews Airbase

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Business and normal social life were yet to fully recover from the ashes of its battle with Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas, as the military continued to block the southern coastal section of the city for clearing operation.

As of October 2 night, helicopters kept sorties from these coastal villages as reports continued to filter into the city of alleged armed encounter and arrests of remnants of the MNLF.

Some businesses, schools and health facilities remained under military control in and around the downtown street of Lustre, the barangays of Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina and Mariki, as the military briefed city government officials about its continuing clearing of these areas, including the bigger but adjacent barangays of Rio Hondo.

On October 1, the military turned over to the city government and its officials the Zamboanga City Medical Center and the city's oldest school near Lustre Street, after the Army said it already cleared the area, Dr.Elmer E. Apolinario, the city assistant administrator told BusinessMIrror on Thursday.

"Hopefully by weekend all the other commercial establishments, especially all the banks, would normalize their operations," he said.

The city already appealed to businesses to open but expected those in the old market area near the coastal boulevard going to the sports complex here to remain close. 

"We are still in the phase of recovery," he added.

Major business establishments and facilities, including the Catholic cathedral, have been displaying the Philippine flag, which became symbolic of a city trying to cope with the gunbattle inside the city that began on September 9.

Army and police personnel roamed the city or guard major establishments and street intersection, and kept a night curfew on all activities.

The biggest problem is how to deal with the evacuees that filled almost all available space of the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex here, where at its peak had hosted 118,000 evacuees. 

Not many have returned as about four barangays, including Rio Hondo with nearly 12,000 residents, have nowhere to return to after their houses were burned, Luzviminda Mindros Ballajo, the barangay health worker in the barangay, told BusinessMirror on October 2 at the sports complex.

The city cathedral displays Philippine flag,

Apolinario said the international aid and welfare organizations shouldered the bulk of the food assistance of the evacuees as the city also dipped into its calamity fund taken from five percent of its P1.7 billion annual budget.

The international aid agencies, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Population Fund, the SAve the Children already gathered all government and nongovernment groups to an orientation and coordination meeting on Thursday to centralize and establish a common understanding and pattern of response to the humanitarian crisis here.

But Apolinario said normalcy may return in two weeks time, after the military said it expected to clear all the areas that were once the battlegrounds.