Rebuilding Marawi without the Maranaos?

Manny Valdehuesa .

EXCEPT for Manila during the World War, no Philippine city has experienced destruction and displacement of people as Marawi has. And no other city, not even at the height of Marcos’s iron rule, has suffered such horrendous devastation and death as has Marawi under Martial Law.

And now all we hear and read about the rehabilitation of the proud Islamic City are from outsiders—mainly national government-designated personalities and task forces, including the military. The local officials seem to be playing a peripheral role, if any.

Worse, the Maranao citizenry are largely restricted from the scene. Not even their civil societies and other institutions seem to have a role. That’s no way to rebuild, rehabilitate, or restore a cultural site. On top of that, we’re told, suddenly, that a China-PH Consortium will undertake the rehabilitation.

The Maranaos can’t be too happy about this development. It’s their city and they’re not treated as the principals?

Marawi is not an ordinary city. The people have a culture, art, and architecture that antedate Spanish-and-American influences. The task of rehabilitating it and resettling its displaced people requires delicacy and sensitivity. A gargantuan undertaking, it requires understanding of the people’s sensibilities, customs, religion, and standards. Total collaboration among all the sectors and institutions in all of its 24 barangays is called for.

But from all appearances, the officials in charge view the task in very simplistic terms—as if it were just an engineering and construction effort.

The Local Government Code (R.A. 7160) is very clear about the role of local officials and their constituents in developing and administering a city or community. There is supposed to be a City Development Council with all sectors and Non-Government Organizations as members. Its main task is to prepare and oversee the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan and Annual Investment Plan. The same goes for the Barangay Development Council of each community.

Both Councils are the agencies mandated to handle development planning, living arrangements, and implementation—regardless of circumstances. All others serve as support agencies and resource suppliers where or if needed. This system affirms the primacy of the people in respect of their sovereign status, as the source and beneficiary of all government authority.

But nothing has been mentioned of these bodies, not of the city’s, nor of the barangays’. Have their roles and jurisdictions been coopted by the higher-ups? Are they simply sidelined in the scheme of things? Collateral damage in a regime of Martial Law?

It certainly appears like the proposed rehab designs, plans, and site relocations are merely being dictated. There is no sign that local officials and agencies play a significant role. None of the barangay governments, the basic units with their constituents, are mentioned. And none of their special bodies and functional committees seem involved.

Even so basic a task as convening the Barangay Assembly of these communities has not been done. These are their legislative governing bodies composed of all the voting-age citizens. Are the Maranao communities being taken for granted and belittled? It sure looks that way. Martial Law!

Yet they too have resident professionals and institutions who can generate and vet plans, programs, or standards in accordance with their community’s customs, practices, style, or content. The non-mention of their role and involvement may be an oversight; if indeed merely an oversight or poor appreciation of the need for public information and public relations, it would be bad enough.

But if it reflects policy and intent, then there’s a lot to answer for. It is very wrong for the Maranaos to be marginalized with respect to what purportedly are being planned for them. And so is it wrong for their duly elected officials and institutions to be swept aside as higher-ups and external bodies take over and presume to do what’s good for them.

It indicates that the Imperial Manila Syndrome, or maybe an Imperial Davao Syndrome, has taken hold in today’s political climate. How else can one interpret the cavalier treatment of the governments of Marawi City and its component barangays? Have they been reduced to second-class status, their constituents marginalized?

This thoughtless practice, if not rectified, robs the local governments and their constituencies of their primary responsibility and role in managing and developing their own jurisdictions.

A serious setback for local autonomy, it presages what collateral damage Martial Law in Mindanao or elsewhere can inflict.

(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, Development Academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; awardee, PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist. He is chairman/convenor of the Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail: valdehuesa@gmail.com)