LOOK: Zamboanga City footbridge collapses during officials’ inspection

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LOOK: Zamboanga City footbridge collapses during officials’ inspection

Kathy Wee Sit and Vic Larato

Mayor Beng Climaco appeals to the House of Representatives to probe the 'poor state' of NHA's housing project for families displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga City siege

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco brought along congressmen and other local officials to Barangay Mariki Island here Thursday morning, April 26, for them to see themselves how the “poor state” of the housing project implemented by the National House Authority (NHA). 

iNSPECTION. From left: Negros Occidental Representative Albee Benitez (in stripes), Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco, and Zamboanga City Representative Celso Lobregat (partly hidden, in blue)

She didn’t expect she could prove it quite powerfully to Negros Occidental Representative Albee Benitez, chair of the House committee on housing and urban development, Zamboanga City Representative Celso Lobregat, and other officials. 

They all fell into the murky waters when the footbridge in the Z3R Housing Project collapsed. 

Z3R Housing Project was meant for families displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga siege. (READ: Zamboanga crisis: The fog of war)

“I express deepest regrets for the unfortunate mishap that transpired during the inspection of Z3R Projects in Barangay Mariki,” Climaco said in a statement. Zamboanga footbridge. Credit to Kathy Wee Sit and Vic Larato/Zamboanga City government

“The incident truly shows the poor state of housing projects currently implemented by the National Housing Authority,” she said, adding that she, the other officials, and the journalists who were covering the inspection were “first-hand witnesses, and victims, of NHA Region 9’s gross incompetence and negligence.” 

Z3R HOUSING PROJECT for the families displaced by the 2013 Zamboanga siege.

Climaco said she had appealed with Benitez “to fully investigate the NHA in Zamboanga City, including its cohorts, the private contractors of the housing project.”

“The Z3R Housing Project was designed to give decent homes to those poor residents who were greatly victimized during the 2013 Zamboanga siege, and now they are again victims, this time, of NHA’s ineptitude,” the mayor said. – Rappler.com 

*Photos by Kathy Wee Sit and Vic Larato of the Zamboanga City government, from Mayor Beng Climaco’s Facebook page

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