Reporting the aftermath of the Zamboanga siege

CHEERS TO the Philippine Daily Inquirer for its three-part series which looked into the state of the communities affected by the September 2013  Zamboanga siege.

On March 24,  the PDI series “Long after MNLF siege, death toll rising” revealed that at least 102 people have died in the evacuation centers even after the standoff between government forces and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fighters. The report added  that the camps where the Tausug and the Badjao evacuees live are “particularly unsustainable and should be immediately dismantled.”

It also pointed out the “need for the immediate decongestion” of the evacuation centers and the relocation of the evacuees, a move which the Badjao and the Tausug are opposing. It also said the city authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are screening individuals who can be included in the list of people who can gradually return  to their communities and reconstruct their homes.

The report also called to attention the lack of a  “serious government effort” to fulfill the promise to “build back better.”

The second of the three-part series, “Zamboanga City bayfront ‘a death zone,’” published on March 25, reported  how the internally displaced people (IDPs) living in evacuation centers are faring. It cited malnutrition, suffocation, heat stroke, hypertension and diseases including pneumonia, diarrhea, respiratory infections, dengue, tuberculosis, and leptospirosis as common causes of death among the IDPs.

The last of the series published on March 26, “Badjaos can go home now,” discussed the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act of 1992, which restricts human activity in protected areas. The report said that even if a place has been declared a protected area, communities can still settle there as long as they are considered “tenured migrant communities.” These are communities that have “continuously occupied such areas for five years” before the areas were declared protected zones and “are solely dependent therein for subsistence.”

The report also mentioned the areas  protected under the Nipas law, the continuing search for relocation sites, and the need for local leaders to include representatives from the “marginalized” Badjao folk in the decision-making process  involved in their relocation.