Once a battleground, Marawi now poised for rehabilitation

HOPE AMID THE RUBBLE A damaged mosque towers above a mountain of rubble in Marawi City, now being cleared of unexploded
bombs from the 2017 siege by Islamic State-inspired terrorists to give way to full rehabilitation and construction. —RICHEL V. UMEL

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur — A 117-kilogram bomb exploded around 10:42 a.m. on Wednesday underneath the Abdullah Mosque in lakeside Barangay Sabala Manaw. It had been one of the few unexploded bombs left from the five-month battle for Marawi City in 2017 that the military was disposing of.

The bomb was the ninth of 49 that the National Housing Authority (NHA), through a private contractor, had been searching for beneath the rubble of the war-ravaged city since March.

The 10th bomb, of similar size, was discovered a few meters away on Tuesday, and was set to be detonated on Saturday.

DETONATION JOB A member of an ordnance team prepares the cord to detonate a 117-
kilogram bomb found beneath the ruins of a mosque in Marawi City’s Barangay SabalaManaw on
Wednesday. —RICHEL V. UMEL

Remaining bombs

According to Roderick Ibañez, NHA Marawi project manager, the search for unexploded bombs, dropped by Air Force planes on targets in Marawi at the height of the battle, was now down to 12.

“The possible location of these are already identified although there is no conclusive determination yet if there are indeed bombs,” Ibañez said.

Apart from leading housing-related initiatives, the NHA also oversees debris clearing, said Marcelino Escalada Jr., the agency’s general manager.

The presence of unexploded bombs has bedeviled the clearing of debris in what used to be the city’s main urban and commercial district—encompassing 250 hectares with 24 barangays—where fierce fighting between government forces and Islamic State-inspired local terrorists took place in 2017.

With the debris clearing stalled, rehabilitation and reconstruction work has to wait.

For debris clearing, the main battle zone in the city was divided into nine sectors.

As of Wednesday, seven sectors had been cleared of bombs, leaving the search for the 12 unexploded bombs in only Sectors 8 and 9, both lakeside areas, Ibañez said.

Run for Peace

On Thursday, on exactly the same day two years ago that President Duterte declared the city liberated from the terrorists, top officials overseeing the rehabilitation of Marawi will run on the major thoroughfares to show displaced residents that it is now safe for them to return to their city.

Among those who will take part in the “Run for Peace” are Escalada, Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., military officials and barangay leaders.

According to Escalada, the NHA has determined that prior to the siege, there were more than 6,000 houses and other structures in the main battle zone, of which about 3,400 have been recommended for demolition because of irreversible damage.

As of Oct. 15, the NHA had demolished 2,508 structures, with the owners’ consent. The rest were either awaiting consent for demolition or owners’ decision to tear these down themselves.

Structures deemed repairable are being cleared of unexploded bombs by the NHA.

On Tuesday, workers found the lid of a 105-mm artillery round on the second floor of a building. Ibañez said the find indicated the necessity of sweeping the last few sites for unexploded bombs.

Rebuilding

Property owners are eager to rebuild. As of Tuesday, more than 1,000 applications for architectural and engineering design have been submitted to Marawi’s Office of the Building Official.

Gandamra said the anticipated construction boom would further boost the city’s recovery.

The rebuilding of destroyed public infrastructure is expected to start by December.