After all the delays it appears that the rehabilitation of Marawi is finally on schedule and rebuilding is about to get started.
The government will begin the construction of public infrastructure in Marawi City by December, the chief of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) said on Thursday, November 28.
Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, who also chairs the Housing Urban Development and Coordinating Council (HUDCC), announced the timeline of the construction of vertical public infrastructure in Marawi's Most Affected Area (MAA) in a news briefing on Thursday.
Del Rosario said that the clearing operations in the area were nearly complete, and that the task force was almost done in debris management, paving the way for the construction of government infrastructure projects inside the MAA between December 2019 to March 2020.
Among the first priority projects to begin construction between December 2019 and March 2020 are the following:
- 200-classroom schoolbuilding
- 24 barangays halls with health center and Madrasa
The task force said it prioritized the construction of the market because the Maranao are basically traders.
"Also by December, we will be groundbreaking for the sports complex for Marawi as it is easy to construct and to really boost and show that the rehabilitation is moving forward," Ibañez said.
The second and third priority projects will include the Marawi City Police and Bureau of Fire Protection headquarters, respectively.
Del Rosario said funds for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi would come from the national budget." At the moment, it's coming from the GAA (General Appropriations Act; we don't have foreign funding," he added.
Del Rosario said the task force will get around P3 billion from the GAA in 2020 to fund the construction of public facilities.
Prioritising the building of a sports complex over a police and fire headquarters seems pretty backwards. What does Del Rosario mean by "we don't have foreign funding?" Many nations have sent billions for the rehabilitation of Marawi. Where is it? Back in May Duterte said the money is in the bank but there have been discrepancies with the use of funds appropriated for Marawi.
Duterte, during a trip to Japan last week, assured donor countries that their financial contributions to the rebuilding of Marawi remain intact in the bank.
But just days later, government auditors released their 2018 report that flagged the government’s housing development council for transferring about 5 million pesos (U.S. $96,000) to the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), purportedly for expenses of a few Marawi evacuees during their travel to the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Those evacuees have not been identified.
The Department of Finance reported aid pledges from China, Japan, Australia, Germany, Thailand and the United States, among others, has reached U.S. $670 million as of November 2018. Demolition of blast-riddled buildings began in February, but officials said rebuilding would not be completed within two years.
But Duterte on Thursday defended the head of the agency tasked to rehabilitate Marawi, as he asked state auditors to reconsider the diverted funds for rehabilitation.
“It’s not about financing a religious journey. Do not take it in that sense. Take it as a pacification campaign,” Duterte said during Eid al-Fitr celebration in his hometown of Davao City. “After all, natives and, we, were subjugated,” he said, referring to the historical sufferings of Muslim minorities in the south.
He said putting the agency’s chief, Eduardo Del Rosario, behind bars could trigger a fresh round of revolt in the south, explaining that a “simple token of generosity” such as funding the Hajj pilgrimage went a long way in ensuring peace in the south.
“We are helping our own people whose religion is Islam,” he said. “Let us invest in peace.”
Where is the $670 million? And what about the funds earmarked for this year which have yet to be released and are in danger of disappearing forever.
It was learned during a meeting of the House subcommittee on Marawi rehabilitation last Tuesday, Nov. 5, that P4.4 billion of the P10 billion allocated in the 2018 national budget for Marawi City’s rehabilitation will already expire by yearend as they remain unreleased despite the two-year validity of these funds.
At the hearing, legislators noted that only P5.5 billion in special allotment release orders (Saros) had been released by the DBM as of end-October.
Data on the DBM’s website showed that at end-September, only P554.5 million out of the P5.1 billion included in the 2018 National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF) for the Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (MRRRP) had been released.
Among the releases, P67.1 million went to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) through the Department of National Defense (DND); P2.3 million to the National Youth Commission (NYC); P213.4 million to the National Electrification Administration (NEA); P244.9 million to the Department of Health (DOH); and P26.9 million to the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).
The Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (MRRRP) was allotted P10 billion but only have of that has been released and we are given no explanation as to why. Why would the MRRRP be given only P3 billion in 2020 to build when P10 billion was earmarked for the project when no building had even begun? And why are the AFP, the NYC, the NEW, the DOH, and even the PCOO receiving any funds earmarked for the Marawi reconstruction? That makes no sense. What role is the PCOO playing in the rebuilding of Marawi? Propaganda outlet?
Equally senseless is Duterte's statement defending the misuse of Marawi funds by using them to send people on the Hajj by saying, "Let us invest in peace" when he wants to build a military base in Marawi.
Despite strong opposition from thousands of people in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, President Rodrigo Duterte formed a technical working group (TWG) to study the establishment of a military camp in Barangay Kapantaran, Marawi City.
Duterte ordered this through Memorandum Order (MO) No. 41 signed on Friday, November 15, and released to the media on Wednesday, November 20, laying down members of the TWG along with its powers and functions.
"To reinforce current efforts of the government to secure Marawi City and its neighboring areas, the President has directed relevant government agencies to study the establishment of a military camp therein," reads the memorandum.
It's just a study but the conclusion already seems to be written since the DND has been pushing the idea of building a military base in Marawi since the siege. Maranaos are not pleased at the prospect.
More than 100,000 people from Marawi City and Lanao del Sur province signed a petition asking President Rodrigo Duterte to halt the government's plan to build new military camps in the war-ravaged city.
Marawi-based civic groups SAKSI Radio Forum and Ranaw Confederation for Peace brought their petition to the Office of the President in Malacañang late afternoon on Friday, November 15.
The petitioners were still waiting for a response from the President on Monday, November 18, their spokesperson Abo Hayyan Malomalo told Rappler.
The petitioners warned that increasing military presence in Marawi would go against the Maranao's cultural and religious sensitivities, and could lead to unrest.
"We are all one and united in our stand that establishing a new military camp could bring about social and political repercussions or spark cultural sensitivity that may possibly lead to social unrest or chaos if adverse effects arise [from it], not to mention the ultimate plan to institutionalize it as a military industrial base," the groups said in their petition.
"The Maranaos vehemently oppose or resent the idea," they added.
Seeing as Duterte signed MO 41 on the same day that these people brought their petition it's a safe bet that he does not care what the Maranaos have to say. That is a problem. Throughout this process the Maranaos have been left out of all decision making when it comes to rebuilding the city. They claim they have been ignored by the government.
To MRCW members, the Meranaw of Marawi are not just displaced. They have been dispossessed.
Even those back in “cleared” areas struggle to return to old livelihood, work and education. There has been little financial aid for residents. The bureaucratic tedium of reconstituting permits and licenses bears down heavily on people still dealing with the effects of trauma. And now the military wants to build a 10-hectare camp on disputed land.
Government officials insist they just want to build a better Marawi. But that vision—which has yet to be fully explained—is being created without the Meranaw, Tawagon said.
“We are from the ground. Why don’t you listen to us?” asked the exasperated educator.
Pacasum said they learned some hard answers while talking to legislators. The biggest, most painful realization: “We don’t really matter at all.”
President Duterte’s allies see passage of the compensation bill as an admission of accountability for the devastation.
The biggest blow was learning that Duterte was not joking when he blamed Marawi residents for their destruction.
"We don't really matter at all." Even if that were not true that is the perception and perception is everything. Maranaos are still living in temporary shelters and have received little to no financial assistance from the government all the while surrendering NPA soldiers are receiving millions in money, housing, and training via E-CLIP. Some cities are even building expensive halfway houses for them.
With many rebels surrendering to the government, another half-way house is set to be constructed in Sorsogon province to help them in rejoining mainstream society.
In an interview on Wednesday, Army Major Ricky Aguilar, spokesperson of the Philippine Army's 9th Infantry (Spear) Division, said the facility will serve as temporary shelter for rebel returnees as they undergo the process of reintegration.
“The PHP5 million worth half-way house for the Happy Home Project in Barangay Cogon in Juban town can accommodate at least 100 rebel returnees,” he said.
Aguilar said the facility will be the third in the Bicol region.
“We have a five-story half-way house building in Masbate and one ongoing construction in Camarines Norte,” he added.
Aside from the 3 halfway houses in this area one is also going up in Zamboanga Sur.
A PHP5 million-halfway house will rise in Guipos town to serve as a temporary shelter for former communist rebels as they prepare to return to the mainstream of society.
Gov. Victor Yu led Tuesday's groundbreaking ceremony along with the officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), signaling the start of the project.
The halfway house is located inside Camp Sabido, which houses the headquarters of the Army’s 53rd Infantry Battalion (IB) in the municipality of Guipos.
At least this halfway house is located inside a military camp. All the better to keep a watch on them. Seeing all this how can Maranaos not get upset and think the government has abandoned them? Ex-rebels have even been gifted infrastructure projects worth millions!
The Kapatiran para sa Progresong Panlipunan, Inc. (Kapatiran), which is finalizing a closure peace agreement with the Philippine government, has received PHP25.181 million worth of infrastructure projects from Negros Occidental’s provincial government.
Kapatiran was the name assumed by the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa - Pilipinas/ Revolutionary Proletarian Army - Alex Bongcayao Brigade (RPM-P/RPA-ABB) as part of its institutional transformation. The RPA-ABB is a breakaway group of the New People’s Army (NPA).
“For peace to be real, we must address, preserve and respect the core of humanity and human dignity and it must be the kind that leaves no one behind,” Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said in his message during the turnover of projects held on Tuesday.
Funded under the 2011 Development Acceleration Program (DAP) are the construction of four classroom school buildings amounting to PHP3 million; construction of a day-care center, PHP1 million; construction of a multi-purpose building, PHP1.5 million; construction of a health center, PHP1.5 million; construction of one phase line and installation of two 15KVA transformer and accessories, PHP2.278 million; and rehabilitation of the Locotan-Mambinay Road, PHP11.4 million.
Funny that the Governor says human dignity and must be respected in order to ensure peace when the government has apparently forgotten all about the Maranaos. But they do have one thing.
For the first time since the Marawi Siege of 2017, residents of the city were able to hold again the Islamic Friday prayer inside the former battlefield or “Ground Zero” on November 1.
Hundreds joined the Jum’ah congregational prayer organized by Saksi Islamic Radio Forum Incorporated, a radio station based in Marawi. With the ruins just behind them, emotional survivors prayed for forgiveness and for a war not to happen again in their community.
It's better than nothing, right?
