By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent .
MARAWI City–Reconstruction at “Ground Zero,” the most affected area, during the five-month siege last year, formally started last week with the groundbreaking ceremonies at the Rizal Park here. But Housing Secretary and Task Force Bangon Marawi chair Eduardo del Rosario del Rosario estimated the clearing of the rubble in Marawi and the repair of the roads to take another year.
“After that, phases by phases; sector by sector; you will be allowed to construct your houses,” del Rosario said during the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.
He estimates the residents would be able to return by “middle of 2020.”
Del Rosario said the residents can return to rebuild their homes by that time.
He did not say if government will provide loans for Marawi residents to rebuild their homes that were destroyed during five-months of bombing last year.
Del Rosario and TFBM officials took turns in assuring Marawi residents they will be able to source funds for the estimated P86.5 billion needed, including the proposed P20.5 billion for compensation still pending in Congress.
Marawi residents are increasingly frustrated that they have not returned to their homes more than a year after the fighting ended.
National Economic and Development Authority Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro said the Department of Budget and Management had earmarked P10 billion this year for the first phase of the rehabilitation, the amount coursed through the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
As of Oct. 10, “there are P4.6 billion na may Saro or Statement of Allotment for Release Order; another P3.9 billion is in various stages of processing for release; and P1.5 billion ang balance ngayon,” Navarro said.
The amount is for priority programs and activities under the Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program which covers areas outside Ground Zero.
The rehabilitation fund for Ground Zero, according to TFBM head del Rosario, is estimated at P15 billion and will be funded from various sources, including Marawi bonds.
Still, the pronouncements of these officials did little to assuage Marawi residents.
Zia Alonto, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Assemblyman and former spokesperson of the defunct Lanao del Sur Crisis Management Committee, said it did not help that President Duterte did not come to lead the ground breaking for the reconstruction of Marawi.
Duterte was instead in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday distributing Certificates of Land Ownership Agreements (Cloa) at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines.
“Marawi residents need to see the assurance from President that the reconstruction will still be the priority project of his administration,” Adiong said.
Adiong said starting the reconstruction immediately will greatly assure Marawi residents.
“They want to see and hear the bulldozers clearing the grounds in Marawi. They have to see and believe that the reconstruction has started,” he said.
The frustration of Marawi residents of Ground Zero is evident in the social media postings of individuals and groups, such as the “I want to go home” movement.
“Today’s Marawi groundbreaking is full of empty talks. It was meaningless,” Tirmizy Abdullah, a professor at the stateun Mindanao State University posted on Facebook.
Drieza Lininding of the Moro Consensus Group said the Task Force Bangon Marawi “will never run out of excuses when it comes to rehabilitation of Ground Zero of now occupied Marawi.”
Lininding said this “only highlights the incompetence of the government to fast-track the rehabilitation.”
Marawi leader Agakhan Sharief said he would not be surprised that the government would end up finishing the construction of roads and drainage canals only and “wala na yong mga promises nila na grand central market, convention center, and port facilities,” he said.
Del Rosario mentioned the grand central market, convention center, and port facilities as among the features of the rehabilitated Marawi City.
Meher Khatcherian, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Iligan City said there are still an estimated 20,000 Marawi residents living in evacuation camps.
Khatcherian said another 45,000 residents are living with their relatives uncertain about their future.
“In evacuation centers or in transitional sites, the families that have been displaced do not have regular access to potable water and proper sanitation facilities,” Khatcherian said
He said adults lack adequate livelihood opportunities, while their children’s education remains disrupted.
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