Beng sees anew delay in Z3R housing project

ZAMBOANGA CITY (ZNS) -  Mayor Beng Climaco has  admitted that the 2,086 internally displaced families occupying the grandstand since the September 2013 siege cannot be totally transferred to their temporary shelters on or before the Dec. 15 target date set by the national government.

Climaco said most that the city government can do is to move out only 380 families from the Zone C portion of the grandstand (facing WMSU main campus).

This, Climaco said, is another slowdown in as far as the Dec. 15 deadline to clear the grandstand of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and transfer them to temporary shelters.

The chief executive said she was toying with the idea having permanent shelters already constructed for the grandstand IDPs, instead for spending money for temporary shelters then later the permanent homes.

“We want to relieve the IDPs with the burden of transferring from the grandstand to the temporary shelters then to their permanent homes. This will take quite some time,” she told the press briefing in City Hall.

Climaco said to rush up the housing units for the sake of the deadline might compromise the quality of the shelters.

We can be slow as long we are sure that the housing units we will give to the IDPs are of good quality,” Climaco stressed, adding that she will not rely anymore on timelines. “We have to make sure of quality more than meeting the deadline,” she said.

Recall that the national government has targeted December 15 as the date for the clearing of the grandstand. (Vic Larato)(112514)