Military clears Marawi’s two iconic Christian structures

By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent .

MARAWI City–The military has declared two of the iconic Christian structures in Marawi City free of explosives but the Christians are hesitant to return.

Task Force Bangon Marawi field manager Felix Castro said the military declared Dansalan College and St. Mary’s Cathedral free of explosives and allowed its officials to visit the structures.

“Its 80 percent free of small unexploded ordnance and we already allowed the bishops to visit the Cathedral and a religious congregation to see Dansalan College,” Castro said.

The small Christian minority in  Marawi, the only Islamic City in the Philippines, however are hesitant to return.

The Christians comprise only one to two percent of Marawi’s population of some 200,000 residents.

“What is there to return to if the rest of the Marawi residents are not yet allowed to return?” Fedelinda Tawagon, president of the Dansalan College, asked rhetorically.

Tawagon said all 18 buildings in the five-hectare school compound, including a four-storey classroom building, were destroyed during the five-month siege last year.

“Everything was destroyed. All buildings are gone,” she said.

Tawagon said this was what they found when the military allowed them to visit the campus on Nov. 23, 2017 and Feb. 24, 2018.

She said the buildings were “too damaged” and it would be far more costly to repair them.

Tawagon said they have submitted their recommendations on how they go about the reconstruction of their campus but Task Force Bangon Marawi have yet to act on it.

She said this include a petition for compensation of the 11 hectares where  the Armed Forces purportedly wants to construct a military base.

Tawagon said the 11-hectare property used to be the farm of the school.

“Naturally, we want to be compensated because that land is legally registered to the school. We own that land,” Tawagon said.

In Jan. 29, President Duterte led the ground-breaking ceremonies for the proposed military camp in Barangay Kapataran overlooking Marawi City.

It is the second military camp in Marawi. The other one, Kampo Ranao, headquarters of the Army 103rd Infantry Division, is located opposite to the proposed military camp and also overlooks the city.

Armed Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bienvenido Datuin said a budget of P51.3 million to buy the 11 hectares from Dansalan College was already approved.

Dansalan College started as a library and then a classroom for Muslim students by an American missionary Frank Laubauch in 1950.

Before the May 23 siege, Dansalan College have 4,000 students, majority of them were Muslim students.

One of the school graduates was Omar Maute, the leader of the Daesh-inspired Maute group.

For now, Tawagon said they are concentrating their resources on building another school in nearby Iligan city.

The sight of the devastated St. Mary’s Cathedral in Marawi City came as a shock to a delegation of bishops who made a quick visit to the site last March.

Rey Barnido, head of the Duyog Marawi who oversees the Catholic program on reconciliation, narrated some of the bishops were in tears when they went inside the bullet-pocked walls of the cathedral.

“One of the bishops knelt on the ground. It was very sad to see what happened to the church,” Barnido said.

He said the bishops who made a visit to the St. Mary’s Cathedral were Bishops  Edwin dela Pena of Marawi, Severo Caermare of Dipolog, Angelito Lampon of Jolo, Julius Tonel of Ipil, Emmanuel Cabajar of Pagadian, and archbishops Martin Jumoad of Ozamiz and Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro.

Fr. Jose Roel Casas, the administrator of Isabela prelature, was also present.

Barnido said Bishop de la Pena, after consulting with the other bishops, gave approval to the military to tear down the Cathderal.

He also said Bishop dela Pena wants to replace the 84-year-old cathedral with a church with a simple design but only after Marawi residents return to their city.

“Bishop dela Pena told us we will rebuild the cathedral only after the Marawi residents rebuilt their city and their masjids,” Barnido said.

Christians in Marawi are among the biggest religious minority in the predominantly Muslim city. Many of them found work in Marawi as laborers, store assistants, and carpenters.

At the height of the Marawi siege, videos were posted on the social networks by the Daesh-inspired gunmen showing how they destroyed religious stations inside the Cathedral and burned the Dansalan College.

Task Force Bangon Marawi said the leveling of all structures would start in June and would last for 10 months.