Ting to pay for new house for woman found living in Canada Hill jungle
MIRI: Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Sebastian Ting has pledged to bear the cost to build a new house for homeless woman, Sidatang Gabak, who was found living in a makeshift hut with her partner in the jungle at the slope of Canada Hill.
“I will pay the cost of constructing a small wooden house for Sidatang and her family to ensure they can live a normal life like other families. I was informed of her plight a day earlier by a Good Samaritan and it really saddened me,” he said yesterday.
The Piasau assemblyman on Sunday had joined a group comprising personnel from Baitulmal Miri and members of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in a threehour hike to reach the hut, but found Sidatang and her partner Khusairi Abdullah @ Philip Aga were not there.
The team departed upon learning that the pair had gone to a friend’s house in Kampung Pengkalan Lutong, and returned later the same day after the couple had returned.
They were also informed that the pair had been living at the hut for nearly three years, and that Sidatang’s son Roslee Hassan and his partner were similarly homeless and living at an abandoned government quarters near Brighton Road.
Both Roslee and his partner were subsequently rescued and brought to stay at a temporary shelter in Lutong Baru.
“I will work out with the NGO to build the house using the ‘gotong-royong’ (work party) concept. I was told that it would be built near Kampung Haji Wahed where Sidatang originally stayed before she moved to the hut in Canada Hill,” said Ting.
Meanwhile, Baitulmal Miri officer Mariani Juraibi said they would assist in providing aid for Sidatang, her son and their respective partners, as well as help them apply for new identity cards as theirs had gone missing.
“We will assist the NGO in building a small home for the family,” she added.