MARAWI CITY(MindaNews / 27 July) – In his State of the Nation Address last Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed Marawi is rising again as he reiterated his commitment to the recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi six years after the siege but displaced Marawi residents continue to call on authorities to “allow us to go home.”
“(Anim na) taon mula noong matinding kaguluhan, babangon na ang Marawi City. Nanunumbalik na ang sigla sa pamayanan. Maraming proyekto ang nakumpleto at mga imprastrakturang naitatayo” (Six years after the siege, Marawi City is rising. The community’s vibrance has returned. Many projects have been completed and infrastructure done), Marcos said.
“Kasalukuyan na tayong nagpoproseso ng tulong-pinansyal para sa mga biktima ng Marawi siege upang sila ay makapagsimula muli. Nawa’y mamayani ang pag-asa. Nawa’y magpatuloy ang pagkakaisa, pagmamatyag, at paghahangad ng kapayapaan at kaunlaran” (We are now processing the financial assistance for the victims of the Marawi siege so they can start anew. May hope continue to prevail. May the unity, vigilance, and pursuit of peace and progress continue), he said.
Drieza Lininding, head of the Moro Consensus Group, said Marawi residents should be allowed to return unhampered to the Islamic City now that the government is beginning to start the process of providing compensation for lives and properties lost during the five months of fighting in 2017.
He said allowing residents to return unhampered to closed sections of the city will restore normalcy in a city shattered by war.
“Twenty-four barangays in the city are still off limits to residents. Soldiers still control the flow of vehicular traffic to these closed sections,” Lininding said.
He was referring to the 24-hectare “Ground Zero,” the main battleground between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group during the five-month firefight in 2017. It is now referred to as Most Affected Area (MAA).
In its April 30, 2022 report, the Task Force Bangon Marawi said that out of the 17,793 families displaced from “Ground Zero,” 4,646 families were living in transitory shelters, 938 families were resettled in their permanent housing units while only 95 families had “returned to their repaired/rebuilt homes in MAA and the rest were home-based.”
Assistant Secretary Felix Castro, Field Office Manager of Task Force Bangon Marawi, told MindaNews on Thursday that there is an ongoing counting of how many have returned to the MAA.
He said out of 3,462 applicants for building permits in the MAA, 1,786 applicants have been issued permits to “build/repair.” He said there are many who are already occupying the houses they are repairing.
Lininding noted that the President wants to bring back normalcy in Marawi City.
For this year, the government has provided P1 billion in the national budget for compensation to lives and properties lost in 2017.
The Marawi Compensation Board started accepting applications for compensation last July 4.
Lininding said the newly constructed mosques, sports stadium, barangay halls should be made available for use by Marawi residents otherwise it would fall to decay.
He said Marawi residents have to go through a myriad of Army checkpoints to reach the receiving center of the Marawi Compensation Board in Barangay Marinaut West.
At the receiving center, Zaud and seven of his siblings accompanied their mother in processing their documents with lawyers from the board assisting them.
“I am filing a claim of P250,000 for the loss of jewelry and other valuables,” said Zaud, who asked this reporter to use only his nickname.
He said this is one of the few times his siblings and mother came together after the fighting burned down their family compound of several houses.
“I miss those days when we were living closely together. True that we have now individual houses but we are living far away from each other,” he said.
Before the compound was destroyed, they were closely knit, sharing tasks and enjoying moments as one big family in one compound, like most Meranaw families. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
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