Velasco to next leaders: Properly enforce Marawi compensation law

REHABILITATION Local officials inspect the rehabilitated Grand Mosque in Marawi City before it is inaugurated by President Duterte to mark the fourth year of the city’s “liberation” from the control of terror groups. —PHOTO COURTESY OF LANAO DEL SUR INFORMATION OFFICE

MANILA, Philippines — The next set of leaders of the country should properly enforce the Marawi Compensation Act, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said Thursday after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the measure into law. 

Velasco said the measure, which is a priority legislation of the present 18th Congress, is designed to help residents of Marawi City in Lanao del Sur rebuild their lives after the 2017 fighting between government forces and Islamic State sympathizers from the Maute Group that left many parts of the city in ruins.

“Through this new law, we hope to see the return to glory of this once beautiful city and its people back on their feet. We also hope to ease the burden of those who lost their properties and loved ones during the war by providing them just compensation,” Velasco said in a statement.

“We see this legislation as one of the important legacies of the Duterte presidency and the 18th Congress. Thus, we call upon our next set of leaders to [ensure] the proper enforcement of this law so that we can achieve our goal of seeing Marawi rise again sooner rather than later,” he added.

Acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar announced Duterte’s signing of the Marawi compensation law on Wednesday.

With the new law, any qualified owner of a residential, cultural, and commercial structure —among other properties—in Marawi’s main affected areas or other affected areas will receive a tax-free compensation from the State.

The government, meanwhile, will “compensate owners of private properties demolished pursuant to the implementation of the Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Program,” subject to rules.

An independent quasi-judicial body named the Marawi Compensation Board shall also be established.

/MUF