Solon seeks P10-B supplemental budget for Marawi City

The Philippine flag flies at the Lanao del Sur provincial capitol in Marawi city as a thick smoke billows . Allan Nawal/INQUIRER MINDANAO

A party-list lawmaker filed a bill seeking a P10-billion supplemental budget for the rehabilitation of Marawi City, where government troops are battling out for three weeks already with the terror group Maute.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kabayan Rep. Harry Roque said he filed House Bill 5874 or the Tindeg Marawi bill, which appropriates a P10-billion supplemental budget for the Department of National Defense (DND), the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Housing Authority (NHA) to rehabilitate Marawi City.

Roque said the funds would be used for humanitarian aid to the victims of the Marawi conflict, and for the rehabilitation of the infrastructures, business establishments and properties.

The fund would be allotted equally among the agencies, Roque said.

“While many efforts have been successful in properly evacuating innocent civilians from the zone of conflict, the government must plan and appropriate funds toward the rehabilitation of Marawi City and the restoration of peace and order within the area,” Roque said in his explanatory note.

“As such, the purpose of this bill is to appropriate a supplemental budget specifically earmarked for Marawi City in order to expedite its recovery from the ruins of war and return to ordinary civilian life,” he added.

Roque said the bill was aptly titled “Tindeg Marawi” to show the “Maranao people’s resilience and fortitude to stand up for what is right and what is just.”

Marawi City and the rest of Mindanao were placed under martial law after the Islamic State-inspired group Maute rampaged through the capital of Lanao del Sur.

Government troops are fighting the terrorists for almost three weeks already to reclaim the city./ac