Marawi residents scramble for war junk

GROUND ZERO Residents returning to villages considered as ground zero of the Marawi siege salvage whatever belongings they can find in the ruins of their homes. —RICHEL V. UMEL

MARAWI CITY — Twenty-eight-year-old Amirah Mondas and her husband, Nasser, combed through the debris inside the structure that used to be their family’s house to find things they could still use at the evacuation center.

But the couple found only three drinking glasses, which they received as gifts on their wedding day before terrorists laid siege to Marawi City on May 23 last year.

“These are the only things that would remind us of our wedding,” said a tearful Amirah.

What was once an ideal place to start a family was now in disarray—cooking stoves, kitchen utensils and other household items scattered on the floor. The house was pockmarked and nearly in shambles.

‘Kambisita’

Five months after fighting between the government and the Maute terror group ended, the Task Force Bangon Marawi had allowed residents of 24 villages considered as ground zero of the siege to visit their homes and retrieve their belongings.

The visit, called “Kambisita,” started on Sunday and will be done by sector or area until May 10.

Holding back their emotions, the Mondases, aided by relatives, started gathering damaged stuff made of metal, including tarnished kitchen utensils.

Amirah said they would sell these to junk traders so they could pay for the vehicle they hired for the trip here on Sunday.

“We put a lot of money and effort to build the house. Now, it’s in ruins,” she added.

Amirah said they had not taken everything of value yet and wanted to return for the duration of the three-day Kambisita at Barangay Tolali. But she was afraid that they could not do that anytime soon.

“We do not have money to hire the vehicle again. We were already fortunate that the owner had agreed that we would pay him out of the things we could sell to the junkyard,” she added.

HOLY BOOK Samiha Kamaludin leafs through pages of the Quran that she recovered from the ruins of her family’s house in Marawi City on Sunday. —RICHEL V. UMEL

Yasmida Macapudi, an elementary school teacher, said: “I’ve accepted the possibility that the house was damaged but then, it was still painful to see it like this.”

She said from all indications, their three-story house was among the structures where combatants had encamped. There was a spent shell for a rifle grenade at the ground floor while the third floor was burnt from what could be a huge explosion.

Compensation

Saripada Taguranao could only utter, “Allahu akbar (God is great),” when he entered what used to be his family’s four-story structure at Barangay Daguduban.

The ground floor had a big hole which, he said, could have been used as a hiding place.

Taguranao said they were hoping that the government would compensate them so they could rebuild their house.

The 1,000 families allowed into “Sector 1,” or the villages of Tolali and Daguduban during Sunday’s Kambisita, were also greeted by heavily damaged buildings and mounds of debris where their houses used to stand.

The group Tindeg Ranao said salvaging was the only thing left for residents of the 24 villages because the fighting and the airstrikes left these areas in ruins.