Proposed military camp in Marawi City: Break ground first, consult later

By Carolyn O. Arguillas, Mindanews

BREAK ground first, consult later; pay now, study later.

That sums up the history of the proposed new military camp in Barangay Kapantaran, the second in the Islamic City of Marawi after Kampo Ranao which hosts the 103rd Infantry Brigade.

President Duterte’s Memorandum Order 41, signed on Nov. 15, 2019 ordered the creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) “to study the establishment of a military camp” in Kapantaran, nearly two years (21.5 months to be exact) after he graced the groundbreaking rites for that proposed camp on Jan. 30, 2018.

Kapantaran is the site of the old City Hall which overlooks the city and Lake Lanao, and is one of the 24 barangays in Ground Zero, the main battle area in 2017 between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group and its allies, now referred to as “Most Affected Area” (MAA). The MAA comprises 250 hectares.

The order comes 16 months after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released on July 11, 2018, the amount of P51.37 million under Saro-BMB-D-18-0015291 to the Department of National Defense (DBM) for the Army “to cover the acquisition of land in Marawi City as site for a new military camp.”

It also comes a full year after government filed expropriation proceedings after prices per square meter in the proposed site went up from P100 to P200 per square meter before the Marawi Siege began on May 23, 2017, to P2,000 to P10,000 per square meter in 2018, according to Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, chair of the Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM).

Del Rosario said expropriation proceedings were filed first week of November.  He said government was eyeing 10 hectares for the camp but could settle for six hectares.

Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra said there has been no ruling on the expropriation.

Memo Order 41 also comes 19 months after results of focus group discussions with nearly a thousand Marawi stakeholders from various sectors showed, among other issues, that residents of  “Ground Zero” or the MAA, “are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the establishment of additional military camp in their area.”

The focus group discussions were conducted in April 2018 after residents complained that the rehabilitation plan presented by Task Force Bangon Marawi  in March was done without consulting them. The TFBM claimed it made consultations. It later sought the World Bank for technical assistance, hence the April FGDs.

Fifteen days before Memo 41 was signed,  the People’s Maswara (Consultation) in a resolution on Oct. 31, 2019 said “another military camp or military industrial base is the last thing needed or wanted by the Meranaos.”

The resolution asked the President to “reconsider the establishment of another military camp in the city; to give justice to the devastated city and ruined lives of its dwellers and to support the speedy approval of the compensation bill for the IDPs” (internally displaced persons).

The TWG is to be composed of six national agencies: the Department of National Defense, Office of the Executive Secretary, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Land Registration Authority, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development; and Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The Memo Order does not provide representation of the local governments of Marawi and Lanao del Sur as well as the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, in the TWG.

The Memo Order lists nine tasks of the TWG:

• conduct a  census for the identification of those who will be affected by the establishment of the military camp in Kapantaran, Marawi City;

• consider the institution of three detachments composed of three battalions dispersed at the boundaries between Marawi City and its contiguous municipalities;

• conduct a resurvey of the area to reestablish the metes and bounds of the proposed military camp;

• ascertain the status of ownership and possession of the lands proposed to be included in the military camp in Brgy. Kapantaran;

• expedite the titling and registration of the affected parcels of land, without prejudice to private rights, upon final determination that they will form part of the military camp;

• assist in the resettlement of the individuals and families which may be displaced from their residences and communities as a result of the acquisition of lands for the military camp;

• provide administrative and technical support to all affected local government units regarding matters arising from the establishment of the military camp;

• enlist the support of other government agencies and instrumentalities in the performance of its functions under this Order; and

• submit periodic reports to the Office of the President relative to the establishment of the military camp in Barangay Kapantaran. (to be concluded)