URGENT CALL | Marawi City residents displaced by the five-month battle between Islamic State-linked groups and government forces in 2017 join a march rally on May 23, 2022, to call on the government to hasten the process of compensation so they can rebuild their homes and restart their lives. (File photo by DIVINA M. SUSON / Inquirer Mindanao)
ILIGAN CITY, Lanao del Norte, Philippines — A Maranao leader has expressed gratitude to lawmakers who pushed for a P1-billion appropriation in the 2023 national budget to compensate residents of Marawi City who lost their properties to the five-month battle in 2017 spawned by a siege by Islamic State-linked terrorists.
Earlier, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said the P1-billion allocation for Marawi compensation was lodged in the P31-billion calamity fund for next year.
“It’s a welcome development. We appreciate this gesture from Congress, but we hope this is just a partial allocation for Marawi compensation since the amount does not represent the destruction of [all] private properties in Marawi,” said Drieza Lininding, chair of the Moro Consensus Group.
Lininding also asked Congress to urge member agencies of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), a coordinating body under the Office of the President, to fast-track the updating of a postconflict needs assessment (PCNA).
Under Republic Act No. 11696, or the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Law, the Office of Civil Defense, in coordination with TFBM, is mandated to update its PCNA report “for purposes of assessing the degree of damage and present the actual or estimated valuation of such damage to its structure caused by the siege and implementation of the MRRRP (Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program).”
The measure provides compensation to those whose properties were destroyed and who lost their loved ones during the siege.
Also entitled to receive compensation are those whose properties were demolished during the implementation of the MRRRP, including the search for and recovery of unexploded ordnance.
Property values
In the absence of baseline data, the law provides that the validated cost estimates in the PCNA may be used to determine just compensation.
The fair market value of land and lost personal properties and the replacement cost of destroyed structures are the general bases for providing compensation, which will be tax-free.
According to Lininding, TFBM has been remiss in coming up with an updated PCNA for the past five years. He lamented that the damage and loss assessment made earlier did not include lost personal properties as it was done “without the participation of the stakeholders.”
“We hope that under this new administration, they will focus more on helping the IDPs (internally displaced persons). The previous administration invested so much in public infrastructure; we hope that this time, they will put the residents as their priority,” Lininding said.
He also called on President Marcos to immediately organize and appoint the members of the Marawi Compensation Board, which is tasked with receiving and approving applications for compensation, as well as disbursing payments to qualified claimants.
—RYAN D. ROSAURO
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