ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 1, 2013) – For lack of a warm place to sleep, six war refugees broke into a storage room of a local poll office and used it as their temporary shelter.
The storage room is located inside the Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex now used as temporary refugee camp where some 60,000 other refugees are staying in tents submerged in floods and mud.
The six refugees Abdul Ataolla, 57; Nursida Majid, 39; Amina Haiber, 49; Nerma Dabbang, 54; Insih Febres, 53, and Arsaima Ablayan, 27, were investigated by the police and subsequently released.
Police said the refugees are all residents of Rio Hondo village who fled the fighting between security forces and separatist rebels in September. The street battles last for three weeks and killed and wounded over 400 people and resulted in a humanitarian crisis.
Police said Allan Corpus, 42, an employee of the Commission on Elections, reported to authorities the break in. It said some confidential documents were destroyed as a result of the trespassing. (Mindanao Examiner
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