Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairman Eduardo D. del Rosario announced on Thursday that the reconstruction of war-torn Marawi City may entail a budgetary requirement of P77 billion, about P7 billion more than what the HUDCC chief cited in April.
Del Rosario, who also leads Task Force Bangon (rise) Marawi told reporters it will take around P55 billion to rehabilitate the most affected areas outside ground zero. About P22 billion is estimated for the reconstruction of ground zero itself, he added.
“I think the highest will fall to P80 billion, but by this month we will know for sure,” del Rosario said.
Earlier in the week, the Philippine government with officials from Japan signed a ¥2-billion (about P472.47 million at current exchange rates) grant agreement to support ongoing efforts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-torn capital of the province of Lanao del Sur.
That agreement was signed on Tuesday by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, on behalf of the Philippines, and Yoshio Wada, chief representative in the Philippines of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, on behalf of Japan.
Del Rosario said that, aside from grants and loans from other countries, the pending issuance of the Marawi bonds will also fund the reconstruction of the war-torn city.
“I think the funding source will be the Marawi bonds that was mentioned by Dominguez,” he added. News reports quoted Del Rosario as saying in April that the four-year rehabilitation plan for the city requires only P72 billion.
The first phase for the rehabilitation of Marawi City is expected to break ground on June 16 with the bidding for the development plan for the rehabilitation to happen by next week. The bidding process will be through a Swiss challenge, according to del Rosario.
Dominguez earlier said the Philippine government has, so far, identified 902 priority projects and activities for the rehabilitation and recovery of Marawi City and its surrounding areas with close to half of the funding to be drawn from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Project Fund.
The other sources of financing for these priority projects under the Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan will come from the various government agencies, the regional government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the city government of Marawi, non-governmental organizations, development partners and the
private sector.
The BMCRRP was approved early-April.