Al Jacinto, a long-time friend I recently visited there, attributes Zamboanga\u2019s flowering abundance largely to the harmony achieved by the 2014 Bangsamoro peace agreement that provided the framework for what eventually became the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of Muslims came to Zamboanga from neighboring islands with money to invest,\u201d says Jacinto, a seasoned journalist who\u2019s spent decades covering the region for this and other newspapers. \u201cInevitably, the city grew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Zamboanga\u2019s population of 977,000<\/a>\u2014a 1.77 percent increase from 2023\u2014is now nearly 40 percent Muslim, up from 30 percent when I first visited there two decades ago. My most vivid memory of that trip is interviewing a woman in a house pierced by hundreds of bullet holes from a nearby shootout that had killed 30 Muslim rebels.<\/p>\n \u201cMy kids have never been here because they\u2019re too scared,\u201d explained Susan Camins Sanz,<\/strong> a Zamboanga native who\u2019d returned to her hometown after 34 years in California where she\u2019d raised a family. \u201cThis is my home. You can\u2019t let fear rule your life.\u201d<\/p>\n Fear had nonetheless inflicted major damage. Absent the tourism that once sustained the city, Zamboanga had become something of a ghost town in which residents kept their distance and streets brimmed with beggars. As one of the few foreigners there in 2003, I stayed mostly at my hotel, closely watched by armed security guards. And always followed the advice of local friends who warned me never to go out alone.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I visited Zamboanga City in the 1990s,\u201d an American friend recently confessed, \u201cit was as if it wasn\u2019t part of the Philippines.\u201d He doesn\u2019t visit any more, he said, because his Filipino wife won\u2019t let him. In fact, he says, he\u2019d like to make the trip, but \u201cif we were captured and beheaded, I\u2019d die of shame for having so stupidly ignored everyone\u2019s advice and common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, that \u201ccommon sense\u201d persists to this day. Waiting to board my flight at the airport two weeks ago, I ran into another foreigner who described my, uh, testicles as \u201cbig ones\u201d upon discovering where I was going. \u201cI sure wouldn\u2019t go there,\u201d he confidently assured me.<\/p>\n But I went anyway and am extremely glad I did. Because what I saw can only be described as inspiring. A brand-new seaside Boulevard teeming with street vendors selling halal food to people who\u2019d probably never tried it. A pleasant array of women wearing hijabs among those with their hair blowing free. And dinners at Muslim-owned restaurants with nary a pork dish on the menu.<\/p>\n \u201cThe restaurants shut down during Ramadan,\u201d warned Jacinto, referring to the Muslim holy month of fasting beginning this week.<\/p>\n My earlier visit to Zamboanga culminated in a Los Angeles Times<\/a> piece chronicling the journey of 1,700 former Zamboaguenos returning from around the globe \u201cto show the world that it\u2019s safe to go [home],\u201d an organizer explained.<\/p>\n What he was trying to tell us then may finally be true now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FREE SUBSCRIPTION HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n _____________________<\/p>\n David Haldane is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster with homes in Joshua Tree, California, and Northern Mindanao, Philippines. His latest book, A Tooth in My Popsicle, is available on Amazon<\/a>. This column appears weekly in The Manila Times<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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