ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
As residents of a predominantly Christian city in the Philippines’ majority Muslim south prepare to commemorate a siege by rebels that claimed some 300 lives last year, authorities have increased security amid threats of another attack.
Senior Supt. Angelito Casamiro, Zamboanga City Police chief, told reporters Sunday, "we do not want the September 2013 incident to happen again," adding that a security plan called "Guardian Shield" sought to ensure that locals could mark the anniversary in a positive way through the deployment of additional troops.
A Zamboanga City intelligence source told he Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media that Guardian Shield was implemented last week following an alert labeled as "reliable but unconfirmed."
On September 9 last year, rebel group the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) - under the leadership of chairman Nur Misuari - laid siege to Zamboanga to protest the peace deal between the government and the breakaway group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Misuari claimed the new deal -- signed March 27, named the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro -- is a betrayal of a 1996 agreement between the government and MNLF, has left his organization shortchanged, and granted Muslims in the region lesser autonomy.
While the siege left some 300 people dead and over 100,000 displaced, nearly 10,000 homes were burnt to the ground with the damage estimated at over $4.5 million (P200 million).
Philippines authorities have ordered Misuari's arrest, accusing him of ordering the siege. He has since been charged with rebellion and human rights violations.
Police and military forces have set up several checkpoints at the city’s entry and exit points.
The commemoration will begin Monday morning with events such as visits to rehabilitation project sites, a media conference with Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar at City Hall and the launching of a memorial project at Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
The anniversary will be marked Tuesday -- under the name "September to Remember" -- with mass and the ringing of bells at local churches, a community blood donation event and the turnover of houses across city to families displaced in the crisis -- as well as a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the policemen, soldiers and civilians who died at the height of the siege.
After a holy mass officiated by Zamboanga City Archbishop Romulo dela Cruz at the historic Fort Pilar Shrine at 5:30.p.m., a candlelight vigil dubbed "Luz de Esperanza" will be held at 6:30p.m. for peace and healing.
Event organizers said Muslim residents are also set to conduct activities in local evacuation centers and perform prayers at mosques on the evening of September 9.
Other commemorative activities on September 10, 13 and 24 will include a solidarity day, recreation and education programs for children such as a puppet show, and a musical performance at Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
Upon arriving in Zamboanga to assess progress on government-initiated housing projects for thousands of internally-displaced persons, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon 'Dinky' Soliman encouraged the city’s inhabitants that "the solution of getting over with the trauma caused by said siege lies on the Zamboanguenos, themselves."
She confidently announced that all those who have been displaced and are temporarily housed at a sports complex in Baliwasan district, will be transferred to their transitional housing centers on or before December 15 this year.
Records show that there are still 2,304 families and a total of 12,476 individuals currently sheltered in the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex area.
Urging residents toward "celebrating the diversity, celebrating their differences, respecting each other and growing together as they were before the siege," Soliman likened the city's path to economic recovery to a "vinta" (sailboat): "the many colors of vinta clearly implies sailing into prosperity."
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