SENATOR Nancy Binay on Monday expressed grave concern on the proliferation of prostitution inside the temporary shelter facilities in evacuation centers run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Zamboanga City.
Binay said the present condition of the evacuees is forcing them to resort to prostitution in order to afford their basic needs.
She said the DSWD should ensure the basic needs of those displaced by the conflict and to strengthen their operations in the area.
Shallom Allian, program manager of the non-governmental organization Nisa Ul Haqq Bangsamoro, was quoted in a news report as saying that women were forced to engage in prostitution for as low as P25 to as high as P300 in order to survive.
Binay renewed her call to authorities to inquire into the actual condition of evacuees in Zamboanga City who have been displaced by the armed conflict last year.
According to reports, the prostitution is said to be rife inside the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex as well as in tent brothels along Cawa-Cawa Boulevard.
Binay who chairs the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development, had earlier filed a resolution calling for a probe on the reported deaths inside evacuation centers in Zamboanga City.
It was also reported that some 100 evacuees had died since September 2013 from diseases in the overcrowded temporary shelters.
Many have been forced to live in evacuation centers in September last year, when members of the Moro National Liberation Front attacked several villages in the city.
Seven months after the siege, no transition sites have been prepared for the evacuees yet which, Binay said, needs immediate attention from the government considering that the problem is now escalating. (Camille P. Balagtas/Sunnex)