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ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/19 October) – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Army’s 52nd Engineer Brigade forged a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) Friday for the construction of bunkhouses for families displaced by last month’s standoff here.
DSWD regional director Zenaida Arevalo and Col. Reynaldo Mutiangpili, 52nd Engineer Brigade commander, signed the MoA that provides for the construction of 21 bunkhouses inside the Mayor Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.
The sports complex houses most of the evacuees displaced by the 20-day standoff after Moro National Liberation Front members loyal to founding chair Nur Misuari laid siege on some coastal villages of the city on September 9.
Arevalo said the bunkhouses could house at least 400 families. Each room could accommodate 10 to 15 persons.
As of October 2, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that 19,043 families or 101,225 individuals were still staying inside 37 evacuation centers.
Arevalo said the project would cost at least P10 million, at P516,000 for each bunkhouse.
The fund will come from the P3.89 billion calamity and contingency funds announced earlier by President Benigno Aquino III.
Arevalo said they are already in the process of identifying the beneficiaries of the project.
Priority will be given to families whose houses were burned at the height of the standoff, she said. (MindaNews)
