Rebuilding Marawi: First 1K shelters to start rising in September

The government will start building next month the first batch of temporary shelters for displaced residents of war-torn Marawi City, the interagency Task Force Bangon Marawi said on Friday.

“The construction of the initial 1,100 temporary shelter units shall begin by the first week of September,” task force spokesperson Kristoffer Purisima said in a media briefing.

The shelters will be built on an 11-hectare private property in Barangay Sagunsungan that was lent to the government for the housing of residents displaced by the fighting.

“The provincial government of Lanao del Sur has expressed strong support [for] the development of temporary shelters for the affected communities,” Purisima said.

The design for the homes was chosen by barangay leaders but will have to be approved by the National Housing Authority (NHA), Purisima said.

“In choosing the design, they cited the need for privacy, cultural and religious sensitivity and a place they could consider their home,” he said.

The homes will be built after the NHA approves the steel wall sandwich panel designs, he said.

Once completed, displaced residents can avail themselves of the shelters after securing clearances from the military and local officials who have been asked to help identify and classify beneficiaries.

Aside from shelters, Purisima said component infrastructure, such as markets and schools, would also be built near the temporary shelters.

Purisima said livelihood starter kits have also been distributed, containing materials that could be used for businesses, like clothing production and food processing.

According to him, the affected families have already received P290 million worth of assistance from the government.

The fighting between government forces and jihadis in Marawi has been reduced to an area less than 1 square kilometer, but there are still security concerns.

“So as we go through the military operations, it is becoming a very close fight and the complexities on the ground are really becoming much more challenging,” said Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, military spokesperson.