MUSLIM lawmakers on Tuesday said rehabilitation efforts to rebuild destroyed Marawi City is still “plagued with inefficiency.”
House Committee on Muslim Affairs Chairman Ansaruddin Abdul Malik Alonto Adiong said the immediate approval of House Bill 3418, or the “Marawi Compensation Bill,” is needed to provide ease and support to people who have lost so much, from their homes and their sources of livelihood, three years after terrorists laid siege on the city.
The bill is still pending with the Committee on Disaster and Management under the Technical Working Group (TWG) chaired by Rep. Khalid Dimaporo.
“May 23, 2017 is the 3rd anniversary of the Marawi Siege. May 23, the day that completely took us by surprise and altered all aspects of our lives, then and now,” he said.
“Many lives were taken, homes destroyed and livelihoods halted, leaving us with only memories and wounds. Now it has been three years and for most of us, it still feels just like yesterday,” he added.
Adiong said the health emergency situation due to Covid-19 adds further strain to the people of Marawi City.
“As we continue to cope with our current situation, I hope we could still lend a hand or two and remain hopeful as we continue to call for and fight for the faster process of the recovery and rehabilitation of our beloved Marawi,” he said.
Change in leadership
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman strongly called for a revamp in the leadership and management of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), the inter-agency body tasked to implement the Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (MRRRP), citing the delays in the reconstruction of the war-torn city.
“While the country fights the Covid-19 pandemic, the people of Marawi suffer twice in this crisis as they continue to be plagued by an outbreak of government delay and inefficiency in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of their homes three years after the 2017 siege,” he said.
Hataman said that the TFBM, established on June 28, 2017, at the height of the armed conflict in Marawi, failed to effect much change during the three-year period that it was in charge of the implementation of the MRRRP.
“It has been three years and still, the people of Marawi have yet to return to their homes. This is actionable negligence already on the part of TFBM,” Hataman said.
“A destroyed Marawi should not be the new normal. Covid-19 or not. The rehabilitation must go on. Construction is one activity that is the least susceptible to Covid-19 infection. It is done outdoors and workers by their nature are physically distanced from each other,” he added.
At the same time, he also moved for the immediate resumption of the MRRRP so that the citizens of Marawi, some 17,000 of whom are still in temporary shelters, can go back to a life of normalcy.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila
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