Marawi gov’t: Over 900 houses built in Boganga housing project

NEW LIFE Residents of Marawi City displaced by the five-month fighting between government troops and Islamic State-linked armed groups in 2017 start a new life in transitory shelters built by the government in Barangay Boganga. —INQUIRER file photo / DIVINA M. SUSON

MANILA, Philippines – The local government unit of Marawi City has clarified that 932 houses out of the planned 1,500 temporary shelter project were already built even before the Commission on Audit (COA) finalized its audit report.

In a text message, Marawi’s Public Information Office (PIO) explained that the housing project in barangay Boganga remains to be “ongoing” because of the limited availability of funds when COA was conducting its audit of the city for 2018.

By September 2018, Marawi’s local government unit (LGU) only had 50 percent of the total P300 million budget.

“The project in question is not completed but almost 900 houses were finished, which is more than half of the total houses expected to build which started only on September 2018, which is way above the funds downloaded,” Marawi PIO said in a message to INQUIRER.net on Wednesday.

“This means that in spite of only half of the budget downloaded, more houses were already built. The contract was consummated September 2018, and in the space of barely 9 months we were able to develop the site by constructing roads, drainages simultaneously with the construction of houses,” they added.

On Tuesday, reports came out that the shelter program was one of the P217.6 million incomplete projects in Marawi.  This was out of the P853-million infrastructure projects the city implemented in 2018.

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

According to the Marawi LGU, 170 out of the 932 houses are now being completed.

“This is a great accomplishment considering that this set of shelters was built more quickly than the others despite the inclement weather conditions in Marawi, where it rains almost every week,” Marawi’s PIO noted.

“Hence, we are happy to note that we were able to accomplish much based on the time and funds alloted for the first 50 percent downloaded. Currently, we are waiting for the other 50% of the budget to be downloaded to complete the construction,” they explained.

Housing and resettlement has been a pressing issue for the city, which was under siege in 2017 when Islamic State (IS) sympathizers, the Maute Group, seized control of Marawi.  The five-month armed conflict has left hundreds of thousands Marawi residents displaced.

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

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

Critics of the current administration have called on President Rodrigo Duterte to expedite the rehabilitation of Marawi.  However, Duterte has insisted that he would not spend fully for rebuilding the city, and would rather leave it to wealthy businessmen. /jpv

READ: Duterte to let rich businessmen spend for full Marawi rehab