MANILA, Philippines — The government failed in rehabilitating the war-torn city more than two years after the Maute siege, residents of the Islamic city in Mindanao lamented Tuesday.
READ: Over P4 billion unused 2018 Marawi fund nears expiration
“Without discrediting the effort of the government… we are seeing a failure, insufficiency and slow implementation of specific programs projects and activities,” Khalid Ansano, a resident and member of the Marawi development assistance team, said during a meeting of the House subcommittee on Marawi rehabilitation.
READ: Marawi still a ghost town 2 years after siege ended
Ansano also said that the primary demand of the people of Marawi, especially the residents of the most affected area, is the immediate and dignified return to their home.
“How can we have this immediate and dignified return if there are insufficiency, failure and slow implementation of projects?” he asked.
Indigenous leader Maulana “Abu Mujahid” Mamutuk, meanwhile, denounced Task Force Bangon Marawi chairman Eduardo del Rosario’s unfulfilled promises that they could soon return to Marawi.
More than two years after the May 23, 2017 siege, the government was only able to provide 30 percent of the residents’ daily water needs, he added.
“May hindi pa pumuputok na bomba sa loob ng ground zero pero malaya kayong nakakapasok ‘yung mga bisita,” Mamutuk said. “Just recently recently nag-celebrate pa kayo doon ng second anniversary ng liberation.”
(You told us we can’t return because there are still explosives left at ground zero but your visitors are free to enter the area. Just recently you celebrated the second anniversary of the liberation.)
“Paano ninyo masabi na liberation hindi kami makapasok ng malaya? Meron bang liberation sa isang lugar na hindi kami makakapasok?” he asked.
(How can you say there’s liberation if we can’t freely enter our home? Could you consider this a liberation if we can’t return to our own home?)
In the same hearing, the Department of Budget and Management bared that over P4 billion of 2018 fund for the Marawi rehabilitation remains unreleased by them and will expire by yearend, further delaying the recovery of the city. The disbursement rate was just a little above 50 percent, barely two months before the budget expires on Dec. 31.
On May 23, 2017, the ISIS-inspired Maute group attacked the Islamic City in Mindanao, destroying public infrastructure, private properties, livelihood sources and displacing thousands of Marawi residents from their homes.
After government forces successfully regained control of the city and killed known international terrorist Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute, the administration declared the city liberated from terror forces on Oct. 17, 2017.
But in April this year, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would let rich businessmen spend for the full restoration of Marawi, admitting that his government could not do it, as promised.
“I don’t think that I should be spending for their buildings,” Duterte said in a speech in Pampanga.
“The people there have a lot of money,” he added in Filipino. “Every Maranao, there is a businessman. Those who are into shabu are included. They have money. The debate there is whether I would be also building the same kind that they lost. I don’t think I am ready for that.”