Zamboanga Crisis
Written on September 14, 2013.
I wish I can relate to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts about food trips, travel, weekend parties, songs, TV shows or celebrity news. While I usually find these trivial and unnecessary, it is this kind of normalcy that I desperately wish I had right now. While weekdays resumed last Monday in most parts of the country, a text message from my mom saying that our hometown is being attacked woke me up. It was never the same since 6 days ago. I could not concentrate at work. I was desperate for news whether the situation was improving. I have been constantly in touch with my family making sure that they are safe. It irritates and scares me if it takes a long time for my parents to answer my calls or respond to my text messages. While the rest of the nation go through their routine, those of us from Zamboanga who are based here and have family and friends in our hometown have sleepness nights and unproductive days. Our thoughts are at home where over 50 thousand people have evacuated and are currently enduring deplorable conditions at temporary shelters. Meanwhile, there is still no good news of a settlement and solution. The Joaquin Enriquez Sports Complex, where most evacuees are, is filled with homeless, hungry residents. Exhausted but kind-hearted, brave volunteers are there to give food and alleviate their condition. The Grandstand, as we call it, is where locals do early morning runs in its rubberized oval and play all sorts of sports. It was made for the 1992 Palarong Pambansa and has since become the main venue for regular sports and social events in the city. It is bustling with young and old on any given day, swimming, playing basketball, football, badminton, martial arts and others . Students from nearby Western Mindanao State University and Zamboanga West High School also go there to hang out. It pains my heart to see its current state. Makeshift tents have been built, most sleep on the cold concrete bleachers, evacuees who have nothing but their clothes and few personal items are desperate for any form of relief. The only refuge in Grandstand are the children who run around, play and laugh. They excitedly queue for soup or other relief items as if all of these were just a game. They are oblivious to the severity of the situation, its long-term effects and how this will change their life forever. These innocent children perhaps think that this will come to an end, at some point. If this was a game then it has to have an ending. I wish I can be as positive and as naive, maybe even hopeful that it is going to end the soonest possible time. Like most of us, I don't know why this happened. What I am sure of is that violence will never be the solution. It will only spawn more misunderstanding and mistrust. Armed struggle will never be an act of bravery but the opposite. It is irresponsible and short-sighted. We have exerted all efforts to try to bring attention to what is happening in Zamboanga since it started. We equate the attention of national media to the importance of resolving this tragedy and ending it. It took days before the situation had remarkable airtime. This makes me realize that we are not that special. We will not be able to command exclusive attention to our grief and hopelessness considering other issues, which are always serious and never-ending. We know that the world will not be able to understand what we are going through. But we do not wish for the world to experience what we are seeing, hearing and feeling now. The lives of our families and friends are at stake and the future of our city is again uncertain. We did not choose this to happen to us. I did not want my birthplace and hometown to be a war zone. But there are many questions that do not have answers and there are many realities I cannot change. In times of crisis and amidst despair we have to get our act together. We are abled people. The whole nation might not be able to share our struggle but there is much we can do ourselves. Hopefully we will all realize that despite of uncontrollable circumstances, there are still situations and realities we have a hand on. We can all do something, in words or gestures, so this will have a conclusion. Zamboanga's sons and daughters may be tired and frustrated but we are also determined that we can do something, somehow, so this will be over and we can all move on.
