Monday, January 29, 2007 Residents return to abandoned Zamboanga village By Bong Garcia
MAJORITY of families that fled their homes have returned to their village in the eastern coast of Zamboanga City.
City Social Welfare and Development Officer Francisco Barredo said 75 of the 84 families have returned home from evacuation centers established in Barangay Curuan.
The 84 families, comprising of 333 individuals, fled their homes from Camp Pilar, Upper Curuan when gunmen ransacked a general merchandize store and torched four houses there last January 17.
The incident took place when the residents in the area stopped paying revolutionary tax to the gunmen after the amount was increased from P12,000 to P30,000 monthly.
Barredo said the residents have been returning home since last week after the peace and order situation in the area normalized, following the establishment of a military detachment in the village.
The military's Task Force Zamboanga (TFZ) deployed troops from Camp Pilar to assist the police force in the maintenance of peace and order in the place.
Barredo said it was not yet determined as to what group the gunmen belong to.
TFZ chief Col. Alfredo Peralta said the gunmen were believed to be followers of slain Abu Sayyaf bomber Amihansa Ajijul alias Alex Alvarez.
Alvarez, who was tagged behind the 2002 series of bombings, was killed by government troops in July of 2005 in the eastern coast of Zamboanga city.
A dozen people, including an American soldier, was killed while 200 others were wounded in the 2002 Zamboanga bombings.
