Sultan Sharif Pulalun brings cheers to Zamboanga scavengers, fire victims
text & photos HADER GLANG

Poor residents in Lumbangan and fire victims in two other Barangays in Zamboanga City found cheers early Sunday after Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo Sharif Ibrahim Ajibul Mohammad Pulalun personally handed to them food assistance.

The Sultan, along with supporters, led in the distribution of rice, noodles, and sardines at the “Zamboanga’s poverty hill” with a hundred of scavengers in the area. At the same time, he carried out a house-to-house distribution of goods in Barangays Canelar and Moret with village officials.

“It really feels good that you have at least help in a small way,” Sultan Pulalun later said in an interview.

He also called on the people, especially those well-to-do families, to share their blessings because the poor residents in the said barangays really need foods and medicines.

An elderly woman, who spoke in behalf of the Lubangan scavengers, said that they are very grateful to the assistance extended by Sultan Pulalun to them.

“Gracias gayud con el attention ya dale canamon aqui…bien grande ayuda ya gayud este (we are very thankful to the attention that has given by Sultan to us…this is a big help),” she said.

Lumbangan, about 10 kilometers east of Zamboanga City, is a dump site for tons of garbage that could be anything from a harmless piece of rubber duck toy to more toxic materials such as computer and television parts or even a bottle of pesticide.

For its residents, the village is a man-made hill of poverty, a symbol of a struggle for many who brave the heat and cold in search of scrap, wrote Al Jacinto, a freelance journalist, in his feature news published in the national dailies late last year.

According to Jacinto, the dump is a place of opportunity for many jobless people in the village, but there are dangers to face as well and many scavengers are suffering from different diseases such as tuberculosis, asthma and skin allergy.

Early this year, a big fire hit one of the city’s urban village leaving some 6,000 families (mostly squatters) homeless in the congested barangay Canelar. The fire destroyed about 1,500 houses. Many of the fire victims are still not relocated or re-housed up to now.