Boulevard center isles,

cleared, spruced up

 ZAMBOANGA CITY (ZNS) -The R.T. Lim Boulevard is on its way back to its former look  following massive clean-up and facelift activities by City Government personnel together with concerned agencies over the weekend.

Assistant City Administrator Elmeir Apolinario, Ph.D., head of the temporary shelter cluster Friday spearheaded the clearing of the boulevard center isles including the sidewalks fronting the Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex and the Zamboanga City High School-West.

Structures used as temporary shelters by internally displaced persons have been demolished. The IDPs, numbering about 300 are now occupying only one area of the shoreline particularly at the far end adjacent to the Women’s Magbasa Kita center.

Apolinario said these remaining IDPs, most of them Sama de Laut families are set for transfer to sitio Buggoc in Barangay Kasanyangan where the local government together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched a build challenge partnering with private groups for the construction of some 200 single detached houses on stilts.

After the clearing of the area on Friday, combined personnel from the City Administrator’s Office, City General Services Office, Office of the City Environment and Natural Resources and Mayor’s Office spruced up the area by flushing and painting the concrete parts of the island and replanting greeneries –all to beautify the area and make it attractive to visitors anew.

In the past few days, Apolinario’s temporary shelter cluster along with   other agencies caused the transfer of over a hundred families from the R.T. Lim Boulevard to the Masepla, Mampang transitory site.

Some 30 other bunkhouses are to be constructed at the Masepla transitory site courtesy of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to accommodate more IDPs before they are moved to their permanent locations.

Apolinario said the entire boulevard will be cleared of IDPs in due time. “The City Government is doing the best it can by undertaking measures to bring it back to the world class attraction it was prior to the siege.” (Sheila Covarrubias) (081514)