By R.G. Antonet A. Go
ZAMBOANGA CITY, (PNA) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has transferred more than 2,000 evacuees from the Mayor Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex to two nearby schools.
This came about after the grounds of the sports complex have been flooded due to incessant rains in this city since Friday until Sunday.
DSWD secretary Corazon Soliman said the evacuees were transferred Friday to the nearby government-run Zamboanga City High School (ZCHS)-west and to the Baliwasan Central School.
Soliman said the transfer of the elderly, mothers, babies and children was the immediate solution they adopted to protect them from sickness.
“Kasi umuulan, nahihirapan ang mga tao,” Soliman said adding: “Kapag nabasa yung mga nanay at mga baby, kawawa naman magkakasakit sila.”
She said they were not able to sleep since the tents where they are temporarily housed at the sports complex were flooded by the incessant rains since Friday.
Meanwhile, she said that bunkhouses will be built inside the sports complex for the evacuees “so that they will have temporary shelter and they can cook their own food.”
Soliman said there are still 71,000 evacuees whom the government is helping not only through the provision of food but also rebuilding their lives to include livelihood programs and trainings.
The thousands of evacuees were displaced by the standoff when hundreds of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels infiltrated this city last September 9.