Noted architect offers help in reconstruction of Marawi

ARCHITECT FELINO ‘Jun’ Palafox Jr. FILE PHOTO

MARAWI CITY—Prominent Filipino architect Felino Palafox Jr. has committed to help in the reconstruction of war-torn Marawi City, according to a Lanao del Sur official.

Zia Adiong, spokesperson of the Lanao del Sur crisis management committee, said Palafox would “handle the reconstruction of Marawi and Lanao del Sur for free.”

“Task Force Bangon Marawi has contacted his firm (Palafox and Associates) and he committed to help. I guess the professional charge is free,” Adiong said on Wednesday.

P20-B reconstruction fund

The details of Palafox’s role in the reconstruction of the city, for which President Duterte said he would allot P20 billion, were still unclear, but Adiong said the architect would definitely be part of the team.

Palafox, also an environmentalist and cited by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s 48 heroes of philanthropy, worked in rehabilitation efforts in at least 38 calamity-stricken countries, including Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

The company he founded, Palafox Associates, was on World Architecture magazine’s 1999 list of top global architectural firms.

Mr. Duterte earlier said the reconstruction of Marawi could start as soon as the military had cleared it of terrorists.

The President has approved Administrative Order No. 3, creating the Bangon Marawi Interagency Task Force, according to Gen. Eduardo Año, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was named head of the interagency task force.

Military’s role

Año said he had issued a directive designating Brig. Gen. Ramiro Manuel Rey, head of Joint Task Group Ranao, as leader and overseer of military efforts during the reconstruction and rebuilding phase.

Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr., spokesperson for the military, said the AFP’s engineering units were prepared to take on the job and would be deployed to the city as soon as ground troops had finished operations.

Padilla said the military would work closely with local governments during the rebuilding and rehabilitation phase.

Several countries, including the United States, China, Australia and India, have offered to help in the rehabilitation and rebuilding of Marawi.

Malacañang said it welcomed the offers, although Lorenzana said the foreign governments’ roles would still have to be discussed.

Relocation site

Officials said they had started the groundwork for an 11-hectare temporary relocation site where displaced residents of the city would be transferred.

Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra said the construction of the temporary dwellings in Barangay Sagonsongan here, which would include tents and “possibly shelters made of light materials,” could be completed in a month’s time.

The site would be able to accommodate 5,000 families, he said.

Gandamra said the city government was also working with other local governments to find  more areas for relocating displaced residents while Marawi was being rebuilt.

The fighting has displaced most of Marawi’s more than 260,000 residents.