Robredo vows to get funding for Marawi compensation bill

The bullet-ridden Mindanao Islamic Center in a photo taken in 2017, stands amid ruined structures following the five-month war between government troops and Islamic State-linked terrorists in Marawi City. (File photo by JEOFFREY MAITEM / Inquirer Mindanao)

MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, Philippines — There will be funding for a measure aimed at compensating those who lost properties during the five-month siege of Marawi by Islamic State-linked terrorists in 2017.

Vice President Leni Robredo made the assurance on Friday at a rally at a Sagonsongan temporary shelter site here in Marawi.

“My promise to you is that, if I become president, this compensation bill will get immediate funding,” Robredo said in Filipino. “I know that so many of you are waiting for this. So many are waiting because so many suffered for years after the Marawi siege.”

She noted that the city could not return to normalcy for as long as many of its residents remained in evacuation centers.

Marawi residents expect the compensation bill, which is now awaiting the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte, to hasten the rehabilitation of the city as it will drive the rebuilding of private houses.

On Thursday, Robredo’s rival, former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said there would be no more need to prioritize the rehabilitation of Marawi as this was expected to be done by the Duterte administration.

But Maranao activist Drieza Lininding said Marcos was ill-advised about the true state of the rehabilitation of the city — “not knowing that residents are still displaced and longing to return.”

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