Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman (Photo by JULIE S. ALIPALA / Inquirer Mindanao)
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — Congress has allocated over P1 billion in the 2024 budget to compensate victims of the Marawi siege in 2017.
This was contained in the bicameral conference committee report that was ratified by the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman, a staunch advocate of ensuring adequate funding for the Marawi compensation fund.
The final allocation for the compensation effort is P1,131,954,000, which is P20 million more than the amount reflected in the House version of the 2024 national budget.
“This amount is the programmed fund for 2024, but the unprogrammed fund is P6 billion,” Hataman told the Inquirer over the phone.
The P6 billion, Hataman explained, will only be realized if government revenue exceeds the programmed spending next year, hence what will be immediately available for the Marawi Compensation Board (MCB) to pay the validated claims is only P1.13 billion.
“This (P1 billion) is not enough,” Hataman lamented, noting that based on initial projections, the compensation fund should have an annual allocation of not less than P5 billion.
On Friday, MCB chair Maisara Dandamun-Latiph told reporters gathered in Davao City for a training on transitional justice, that they were expecting over 20,000 applications for compensation with claims amounting to as much as P50 billion.
READ: 2024 Marawi Compensation Fund to reach P 5 billion, says Hataman
Destruction
The estimate is based on data on a number of families living in and the structures before the 2017 war against Islamic State-linked militants in the 32 villages of Marawi City that were affected by the five-month-long fighting.
The war destroyed Marawi’s main commercial district and displaced at least 17,000 families from their homes and communities.
From July 4 to the end of November this year, the MCB received 10,320 claims with declared values totaling around P31.6 billion, most of these for personal properties.
Within the same period, MCB evaluated 474 claims totaling about P1.3 billion.
This year, the MCB has over P1 billion in funds to underpin the compensation payments, of which some P11 million has been released.
The payment of public funds for victims of the 2017 conflict is mandated under Republic Act No. 11696 (Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022) which seeks to “provide compensation or reparation to the internally displaced persons of the 2017 Marawi siege whose damaged or demolished properties and possessions cannot be recovered.”
The compensation covers structures and lost personal properties in the 32 affected villages, and death.