COA: 2 years after Marawi siege, one temporary shelter still incomplete 

MANILA, Philippines – An audit report of Marawi City in Lanao del Sur has showed that the construction of a temporary shelter for city residents who were displaced in the 2017 siege, has yet to finished

In its audit report of Marawi City for 2018, the Commission on Audit (COA) has found out that one of the temporary shelter projects, situated in Barangay Boganga and worth P300 million, remains incomplete.

The item was specified in the city government’s operational highlights.  This comes two years after the five-month long Marawi siege, where Islamic State linked Maute Group took control of the city.

READ: Two years after terrorists’ siege, Marawi is still down and out

The unfinished housing project bolster the claim of Marawi civic workers and the international community that over 100,000 residents are still homeless or are now in evacuation centers.

READ: 100,000 still homeless 2 years after Marawi siege

The unfinished housing project is part of the P853 million infrastructure projects being implemented in the city — P217.6 million of which have been completed, the COA said.

Other remaining projects in Marawi City include installation of street lights in Barangay Buadi Itowa (P2.175 million); land development in Boganga (P180 million); and the rehabilitation of transport and food terminal in Barangay Marawi Poblacion (P90 million).

Construction of two of Marawi’s water projects — the Salintubig Water Resource Facility and Salintubig Civil Works worth P21.67 million and P42.23 million respectively, are also now ongoing.

INQUIRER.net has sought the side of Marawi City’s local government unit (LGU) regarding the unfinished housing project.  In a phone interview, city officials promised to provide data about the development of all temporary shelters and other housing projects concerned.

Meanwhile, COA praised the Marawi City government for a 63 percent increase in its tax collection, with P6.240 million obtained in 2018 compared to just P3.840 million in 2017.

The COA also noted that other infrastructure projects like a similar temporary shelter in Barangay Emie (P53.6 million); construction of a city hall dormitory (P24.75 million); and at least 10 multi-purpose halls in different barangays, each costing around P3.9 million have also been completed.

Non-submission of disaster plan

However, the COA has called out Marawi City for not preparing and submitting its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund Investment Plan (LDRRMFIP) for 2018.

In the same report dated July 9, the COA said Marawi’s non-submission of the plan has made it difficult to determine whether the city has funded and implemented programs on risk reduction.

“The Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund Investment Plan (LDRRMFIP) was not prepared nor submitted thereby resulting in difficulty of determining where or not projects, programs and activities funded by LDRRMF were carried out as planned,” COA said.

This supposedly goes against Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.  Section 21 of the said law states that local government units (LGUs) should allocate at least 5 percent of their estimated revenue from regular sources to support activities such as pre-disaster awareness programs and such.

This law was also mentioned in COA’s Circular No. 2012-002 released last September 2012, which sets the accounting and reporting guidelines for the LDRRMF obtained from national agencies and other LGUs.

According to item 5.1.2 of the circular, the LDRRMFIP should be prepared annually, and present the 30 percent allocation from the Quick Response Fund and the various allocations for “disaster mitigation, prevention, and preparedness”

“We recommended that Management require the concerned official to prepare the annual LDRRMFIP for CY 2018 in adherence to the provisions COA Circular No. 2012-002 dated September 12, 2012, and submitted to the Auditor for our review and evaluation,” COA said.  /muf