‘Rehabilitate Marawi for the Meranaws’

Sittie Rahma Asim, a 33-year-old single mother of two, used to earn up to P1,500 or $29 a day, selling grilled snacks near her home in Marawi City. This income is on top of what she earns from her small sari-sari store in front of her house in Officers Line, Pangao Saduk village. She also sells clothes and kumbong or headscarfs.

“It’s not like us to ask for charity. We make do with whatever small profit we make,” Asim said in Filipino.

Like many Meranaws who are known as merchants, her good business sense has given her earnings, from which she had built her own concrete house on their family lot. She also acquired basic home appliances, such as a stereo component, a flat-screen TV, comfortable beds for her two sons and herself.

But like the 400,000 residents of the city, she had to leave her home and her little comforts when fighting broke out between government troops and the Dawlah Islamiya on May 23. Stuck as evacuees in Saguiaran, they spend their day mostly waiting for relief goods, and longing to return to their old, peaceful lives.

Asim and other Meranaws are worried that that may not happen, with the looming entry of big foreign and local businesses which the Duterte administration has involved in the rehabilitation of the war-torn city. Worse, they fear that as Duterte cozies up to the US government, the city may become one of the “agreed locations” for a US military base.

The only Islamic City in the country used to boast of a bustling trade, with its myriad small merchants, cottage manufacturing and agriculture. The entry of giant corporations will displace all that and change the way of life in the city.

Simple living in Marawi

The Meranaws, or “people of the lake,” get their name from resourceich Lanao or “lake,” one of the world’s 15 ancient lakes. The hydroelectric power plant installed on Lake Lanao and its only outlet, Agus River gives 70 percent of electricity in Mindanao. Amid abundant resources, the Meranaws have led simple lives, in the city they have inherited from ancestors who have fiercely defended it, along with the lake.

“We don’t even have SM in Marawi,” Asim proudly said, referring to the shopping mall conglomerate which is found in many urban centers around the country.

Rehabilitate Marawi

for the Meranaws

Evacuees like Asim insisted that any rehabilitation should not displace the residents, who should be allowed to rebuild on their own lots. She said “building better” should only mean bigger roads, for better mobility within the city. But everything else – the market place, the residences – should remain where they are and not be replaced with malls and private enterprises.

Sandugo leader Aba said the concentration of Meranaw population in Marawi is due to their historic defense of the city against invaders. “They have asserted their right and defended their territory there,” he said.

“If government pushes through with an anti-people rehabilitation, they can expect resistance, through many forms,” Aba said.

The Meranaw evacuees insisted they will return home, and will not agree to relocation. (bulatlat.com)