First-ever site of permanent homes for Marawi folk launched

By Lina Sagaral Reyes,
Special Correspondent

MARAWI City – The rehabilitation efforts here reached a milestone this week as the first-ever site of permanent homes was inaugurated in Barangay Kilala, barely two weeks before the city marks the second year of the end of a five-month siege in 2017.

The Task Force BangonMarawi(TFBM) and the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) led the inauguration program Monday at the 39-hectare site, some 10 kilometers away from “Ground Zero” and overlooking Lake Lanao.

Speaking at the groundbreaking program, Eduardo del Rosario, chair of the TFBM and department secretary of human settlements and urban development, noted the importance of the occasion being the first site for permanent homes. He noted that the delay in building permanent relocation sites for the internally displaced Marawi residents had been due to ‘’challenges in acquiring (contiguous) huge land areas and the need for these areas to comply with the strict government procurement criteria and relevant regulations.’’

“Over the last three weeks, we had been faced with the challenge of finding the area on which to build (the permanent houses) and meet project deadlines. Now, we can heave a sigh of relief,’’ del Rosario said.

“This is it. Truly our journey home has truly begun from this day onwards,” said Jamila Assama, a representative of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) who has been identified as partner-recipients of the housing project.

The National Housing Authority (NHA) acquired the lot dubbed “PamayandingsaRanaw Residences saDansalan,’’ and offered two hectares of it as the site for the first 500 homes. The NHA will also oversee the site development, including the standard roads, drainage system, parks and playgrounds, a market, elementary and high schools, a covered court, and an area for a mosque, while the Marawi city government pledged to build a sports dome.

Some 500 home partners will soon start to build their own homes here by January next year under the UN Habitat’s  RebuildingMarawi through Community-Driven Shelter and Livelihood  Project.

The one-story core houses will each have a floor area of 46 square meters, with three bedrooms, a toilet and kitchen, as Ibanez added that the NHA-approved design underwent a beneficiary-based consultation process, and was sensitive to articulated culturally-based needs such as separate bedrooms for the male and female family members, and a space for a vehicle garage.

MajulGandamra, Marawi mayor, assured the beneficiaries that the houses and lots will eventually be theirs and that his office will see to it that each family will be granted individual titles to their lots.

Gandamra, who is also chair of the Rebuilding Marawi Steering Committee, also urged the residents to work together to make community rebuilding easier and quicker for all.

“We cannot each rise up on our own alone, we have to do it together; making sure we are able to sustain our efforts in the years to come. The work of the government and other humanitarian groups to help us rise up will be in vain if we cannot sustain it,’’ he said.

Barangay Kilala chair Ozamah Macabangon, welcomed the project in his village and looked forward to responding to the needs of the resettled.

“There will be substantial changes as the population of the barangay will multiply,’’ Macabangon said.  Barangay Kilala’s population of 1,217, according to the 2015 census,  is expected to expand almost ten-fold, with the Pamayanding resettlement of some 2,000 families.

“I have been briefed earlier by the city government about our prime responsibility of responding to their needs and to make sure we will be able to help them integrate into our community,’’ Macabangon said.

The project, funded by some P500-million grant from the government of Japan, aims to facilitate in building sustainable 1,500 homes for the most vulnerable among the displaced Marawi residents and to benefit some 4,000 families with its livelihood component.

Top priority are homeowners who previously resided along the three to six-meter easement of the Lake Lanao reclamation area and by the Agus River, and vulnerable groups, like single- and elderly-headed families and those with a disability and other limiting conditions.

There are still at least 73,000 evacuees out of the 300,000 displaced residents, who are in transitional camps and tents, and living in relatives’ homes, according to the April 2019 report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The UN report quoted the government as saying that it will take between three to five years to rehabilitate the affected areas, while an estimated 230,250 people have so far returned to the partially damaged barangays. 

Under the UN Habitat’s People’s Process, conflict-affected and internally displaced families are empowered to become actors in their own recovery. The government’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), in cooperation with cement-maker Holcim has trained batches of qualified Maranao youth in masonry and carpentry, who can, in turn, be employed through a cash-for-work program of the UN-Habitat project.

The launch also coincided with the global observance of World Habitat Day, designated to be an occasion for reflecting on the state of the world’s cities and towns and the basic right of all to adequate shelter.

The day was also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns.

Speaking at the launching program, Berhardt Barth, UN-Habitat for Asia and the Pacific human settlements officer, said that “at the heart of the Project is our partner communities who actively engage with other communities and stakeholders in the rehabilitation work. We believe that people have the inherent capabilities to cope with extreme difficulties once their potentials are harnessed.”

Barth said the UN-Habitat has more than 30 years of experience in post-conflict and post-disaster rebuilding of communities through shelter and livelihood projects in Asia and the Pacific region, particularly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.   

“The groundbreaking is an important phase in our contribution to achieving durable solutions for Marawi’s displaced population,’’ added Barth, as he thanked the NHA for granting the land, “where, in a few months, we will see a new community breathe with life.’’

well as electrical and plumbing systems. Each will stand on a 90-square-meter lot, with enough space for a garage, according to Roderick Ibanez, region 9 NHA manager.