Heavy rain, floods force evacuation in 10 Zamboanga City villages

Zamboanga City's efforts to recover from last month's crisis involving fighting between government and Moro National Liberation Front forces now face another obstacle: the evacuation of residents affected by last weekend's heavy rain and flooding.

Mayor Beng Climaco said residents in at least 10 villages had to be evacuated amid the heavy rain brought by the inter-tropical convergence zone.

"Slowly, Zamboanga City is getting back to normalcy, but the incessant rains that hit the city since Friday has inundated low-lying areas causing another evacuation in at least 10 barangays," she said.

City Administrator Antonio Orendain Jr. and OIC social welfare officer Evelyn Las Marias tackled possible actions by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to alleviate the plight of the affected families, she said.

Earlier, the mayor said Zamboanga City officials are studying whether to relocate some evacuees from last month's fighting to safer ground in the wake of last weekend's heavy rain and floods.

"[V]arious issues were discussed to include the relocation of the evacuees in various centers such as the grandstand to safer grounds due to flooding," she said in a post on her Facebook account.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council's Oct. 2 update indicated that 19,043 families or 101,225 people are still staying in 37 evacuation centers.

Climaco also said the city's Crisis Management Council (CMC) discussed the need to include the city's grandstand in the rehabilitation after all the evacuees shall have been relocated or transferred.

Earlier, residents in barangays Arena Blanco, Mampang and Talon-talon were allowed to return to their homes after the crisis management committee gave them clearance to do so.

But the CMC said residents have to abide by policy guidelines set by the police and military and the CMC.

Zamboanga City is still recovering from the effects of nearly a month of fighting between government and Moro National Liberation Front forces.

Donors' forum raises P4.616M

Meanwhile, local donors have raised some P4.616 million in checks, pledges and commitments to help Zamboanga City recover the nearly-month-long attack on the city.

Climaco said Monday the bulk of the amount consisted of P3 million from the House of Representatives—or P10,000 from each member.

In a post on her Facebook account, Climaco said other amounts given or pledged to Zamboanga City include:

- P500,000 from personal savings of House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
- P11,000 cash from the staff of Belmonte
- P100,000 from the PDP Laban Foundation and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III
- P5,000 from Edgardo Gene Samson Jr.
- P1 million from the Muntinlupa City government

Muntinlupa City is a sister city of Zamboanga.

“We are very thankful,” said Mayor Climaco.

A separate Facebook post said the United Nations pledged $3 million worth of technical assistance to be coursed through interventions by the various UN organizations.

Climaco said other international donors have also committed to assist and support the city. — BM, GMA News