Young evacuees learn to draw at the temporary shelters in Sagonsongan, Marawi City as part of their psycho-trauma debriefing on Friday. Children and the elderly were among the most affected during the five-month siege in Marawi City in 2017, and learning to draw is widely seen to ease the post-trauma effects. (photo by Froilan Gallardo)
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By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent .

MARAWI City — The profiling of internally displaced people here officially ended Friday, 11 days after it resumed.

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Task Force Bangon Marawi field office manager Felix Castro said they are now preparing for the next phase of the “kathanor” program which is designed for the “renters” or those who rented spaces in Marawi City before the buildings were bombed out two years ago.

“We are tentatively setting the next phase in the middle of July as soon as we are ready,” Castro said.

People still jampacked the registration centers at the Marawi Resort hotel (formerly known as Ayala Resort Hotel) on the last day of the registration.

Castro said he estimated more than 2,000 people came in to register on Friday.

“I do not understand why there are still people coming when the registration started last November,” he said.

The profiling of IDPs was suspended May 22 after it was found out that an unusually large number of people were able to register. It resumed June 17.

Castro said it turned out that many of these people were “fake IDPs” who were able to get spurious public documents to back their claims.

He said the “Kathanor” was supposed to have ended in March and the May 20 to 31 schedule was supposedly only for those with grievances or complaints or those who were unable to meet the schedules for their barangays.

Instead, Castro said they were “mobbed” by the fake IDPs.

He said the problem on fake IDPs surfaced during the May 20 to 31 schedule after the Department of Social Welfare and Development released P73,000 “pabaon” cash assistance for the IDPs who were already registered in the “Kathanor” program.

Under the DSWD cash assistance program, P20,000 worth of financial assistance was given to IDPs to start their own business.

A lump sum of P53,000 each was also given by the DSWD to the IDPs as Transitory Family Support Package (TFSP).

Aside from the financial assistance, the DSWD also gave another “pabaon” package consisting of canned goods and other food items.

“This attracted the people to register,” Castro said.

Castro said there was no problem in the profiling process from October 2018 to March 2019.

He said as of May 20, a total of 44,497 households of IDPs inside and outside the MAA had been profiled or registered in the “Kathanor” program since Oct. 7 last year.

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