The City Govt has lined up various activities to honor the September 9 heroes and to commemorate the brave as it stand united with the people of Zamboanga in defending the Philippine flag.Mayor Beng Climaco will lead the different activities starting today and tomorrow, the first year since the September 9, 2013 siege.
Activities on Monday, September 8, include the 8am flag raising ceremony in front of City Hall, a visit to project sites under the Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and Reconstruction (Z3R) by media people at 9am, “Kumustahan” or dialogue with media at 11am, blessing and inauguration of the newly constructed City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) building at Pettit Barracks at 12 noon and subsequently, CDRRMC meeting at the new building at 1pm.
On September 9, the activities will include the groundbreaking of houses on stilt in Mariki at 8am and the turnover of 120 housing units and 16 housing materials assistance in Paniran, Sta. Catalina at 9am.
In the afternoon at 1:30 at the City hall lobby will be the opening of an Art Exhibit that is an offshoot of a 10-day Art Healing Workshop held at the City Coliseum; Ecumenical Service at 3:30pm at the Plaza del Pilar; mass at Fort Pilar at 5:30pm and candle lighting ceremony in front of City Hall at 6:30pm.
All the events encompass the theme healing the wounds of the past and moving forward to building back a better Zamboanga.
Mayor Climaco has spearheaded a series of camp dialogues with internally displaced persons (IDP) leaders as a form of psychosocial intervention to minimize the effects of the trauma caused by last year’s siege.
Other organizations and institutions or agencies have also lined up activities in line with the thrust of honouring the heroes, commemorating the brave, united in defending the Philippine flag. (Sheila Covarrubias)