MAYOR Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar has instructed the Local Inter-Agency Committee (LIAC) to ensure that the remaining 720 internally displaced families will be resettled to their housing units by August this year.

“We want our IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) to know that we have not forgotten them even as we are currently coping with the covid pandemic,” said Salazar, chairperson of the LIAC.

Salazar said her directive was in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s instructions to all government agencies to have their projects, programs and activities under his administration completed in time for the end of his term in 2022.

The mayor convened last Monday, February 8, the LIAC member-agencies like the city housing division headed by Rodrigo Pagotaisidro, the City Engineer’s Office, the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

It was reported during the discussion that 720 families displaced by the 2013 siege still remain in their temporary shelters, considering that the housing units intended for them are still under construction. (SunStar Zamboanga)