From Shoreline to Shelter

"Displaced by the fighting that broke out in Zamboanga city between the separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Philippine army one year ago, she and her husband, seven children and two grandchildren evacuated to a narrow stretch of shoreline, known as “Cawa-Cawa”.

"Itijah’s house was burned down, along with thousands of others, during the siege when the MNLF were flushed out from the densely packed residential areas of Rio Hondo and Mariki.

"A sea of stilts is all that remains of the traditional wooden houses that used to make up the landscape of the coastal barangays.

"Just a few weeks ago, there were still several hundred families living next to the roadside at Cawa-Cawa in a situation that some called a “ticking time-bomb”.  Many Badjao families chose to stay at the shoreline rather than move into the adjacent Joaquin Enriquez Sports Complex (currently housing over 2,000 families), even though the two are situated right next to each other, because of the importance of having direct access to the sea."

"Forty-nine families were transferred to a new site at Buggoc, built specifically for the Badjao, while the rest were either moved to Mampang or are temporarily staying in the grandstand while awaiting the construction of a further 500 shelters by IOM and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)"