Nearly 60,000 displaced Zamboanga citizens remain in evacuation centres

The Philippine government said Thursday that there were still nearly 60,000 displaced individuals in 35 evacuation centers in Southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, which was devastated by a three-week standoff between the military and the rogue members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Corazon Soliman, secretary of Philippines' Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), said that 13,488 families or 59, 376 people from 14 villages have remained in the evacuation centers in Zamboanga. "The JFE Sports Complex remains the biggest evacuation center sheltering 5,350 families or 25, 304 persons. At the height of the crisis, a total of 54 evacuation centers housed 17,437 families or 76,419 persons," she said. Soliman also said that the DSWD is continuously providing relief assistance to evacuees outside evacuation centers, which amount to 12,396 families or 57,940 persons. The families are staying with their relatives and friends in the city. As of Thursday, the DSWD has already provided 113.189-million pesos (about 2.608 million U.S. dollars) worth of assistance to the affected families, Soliman said. She added that social workers and volunteers continue to provide psychosocial and critical stress debriefing interventions to affected individuals including the released hostages. About 200 armed MNLF members went to Zamboanga City allegedly to campaign for independence on Sept. But the government troops chanced upon them, resulting to skirmishes which lasted for three weeks. The armed rebels also took civilians hostage and made them as their human shields to evade arrest. Near 120,000 civilians were forced to leave their homes at the height of the fighting.