by ERWIN TULFO
A year after the Zamboanga siege took place, parts of the city remain devastated while tbousands still do not have jobs. They and their families continue to live in bunkhouses provided by the government days after the war as temporary shelter.
September 9, 2013 saw the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) seizing several barangays of Zamboanga City trying to declare a Bangsamoro republic.
The MNLF, under Nur Misuari was enraged because their group was not included in the Bangsamoro Peace Agreement.
The fighting lasted 21 days between the rebels and government forces, and ended only after the MNLF ground commanders were either killed or captured.
Thousands were displaced during the war and are still homeless and without work to this day.
President Aquino immediately promised aid to the victims such as food, livelihood and permanent housing.
Of the several assistance packages promised by PNoy to the Zamboangeños affected by the war last year, jobs and housing have yet to come.
One elderly woman in Zamboanga, who was a victim of the war, impatiently puts it, “ayaw na namin ng tuwid na daan. Gusto naman namin ng totoong tirahan.”
They blame PNoy for their current predicament saying the President surely is just full of talk.
How many times have I told you that the President is just full of lip service???
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Zamboanga siege a bigtime failure in intelligence
Some 200 heavily armed men belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) took control of four barangays in Zamboanga City on September 9, 2013.
A heavy firefight between the rebel group and the authorities ensued that lasted for 21days and claimed more than 200 lives and some P200 million worth of property went up in smoke.
The MNLF fighters, under Nur Misuari, wanted to establish a Moro republic in Zamboanga after their group was not included in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) Bangsamoro Peace Agreement with the government that year.
Misuari men’s suicide mission was not a top secret operation. They had been warning the public for days through the media of an impending war with the government.
And on September 9 last year, the MNLF fighters seized Barangays Mariki, Rio Hondo, Santa Barbara and Santa Catalina and made the residents their human shields.
But the question remains to this day as to how the MNLF fighters brought in their weapons, and their huge number landing in Zamboanga without being detected by the local police and the military?
One could not help but wonder, isn’t the purpose of the intelligence fund to buy information crucial to the peace and order of this land?
Is it really being used to buy intelligence information or does it just end up in the pockets of our officials these days?
The intelligence network of the government surely failed in Zamboanga last year, yet no one was held accountable for that blunder.
The war in Zamboaga City in 2013 could happen again, perhaps somewhere else, given the fact that we have a very lousy and poor intelligence network.
What a shame!!!
etulfo2011@yahoo.com
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