Better than before

Ruffy Magbanua

“Together we shall rise again and make Marawi better than before.”–Zia Alonto  Adiong, crisis management committee spokesperson

THE fighting is still raging  but this early, a grand plan so massive like never before is in the offing for this city known as the cradle of Islam faith.

An initial P10-billion rehab fund, as announced by the Duterte administration has been set aside for the restoration of battered Marawi, now down to its knees, vividly pictured as an Aleppo-like city of Syria.

The cost of reconstruction is hard to estimate although because there lies completely a very difficult task of physically assessing the rubbles of this meaningless war.

The rehab work, if it has to push through as planned, ushers the start of an extremely colossal task of rebuilding the city from smoldering ashes, an undertaking that carries a monumental challenge for both  the government,  private sector and other stakeholders.

Indeed, the damage is unparalleled   and the human cost is staggering as described by Crisis Management Committee spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong.

Adiong has an urgent appeal to every Maranao affected by the conflict: “In Allah’s time, together, we shall rise again and make Marawi City better than before. Assalamu Alaikom Wa rahmatullah.”

The military, confident as it were, foresees the fighting would end soon but that soon is open-ended, no timeline, just speculative as casualties from both camps–government troops and terrorists–keep on rising by the day.

Accordingly, the job of the government forces is to ensure that they will be the first and the last one among government agencies to come in and get out of the city.

But local authorities had some doubts whether the amount for the rehab work would be enough to bring back the city to its feet, owing to the extent of the damage. They just hope it will not be another  kind of Yolanda or the Zamboanga siege where rehab work is still rehab work up to this day.

With some reservations,  they could just initially look for now at the destroyed houses, buildings and other properties in the city.  Nothing more, nothing less.

So what is Marawi like before the Maute attack?

This lakeside city of some 200,000 inhabitants mostly Maranaos had this notorious reputation for reportedly being warmongers.

And this can be attributed to the infamous Maranao ridos (clan conflicts) and the sporadic local incidents.

But on a typical day, in this city, which sits placidly beside a beautifully landscaped plateau overlooking Lake Lanao, incidents like robbery or petty crimes were rare, almost next to zero incident.

But if there are, the response would be prompt and negotiations carried out to resolve the crisis at the soonest possible time by local authorities and other traditional leaders of the community.

And while there have been threats of terrorist infiltration before, never has any occurrence of pervasive armed struggle that has reached Marawi–not until an Isis-inspired Maute terror group came (unnoticed?) and occupied  this Islamic city of the South.

The rest is history in the making–still unfolding before our very eyes as I write this piece.

E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com