Duterte visits core shelters for Marawi evacuees

In this June 9, 2017, photo, evacuees stay at a crowded evacuation center on the outskirts of Marawi City, Mindanao. AP/Aaron Favila

MARAWI CITY-President Duterte on Tuesday inspected the Bahay Pagasa Shelter Project in Barangay Mipaga here, where Army engineers and members of the military’s Armor battalion, have been building core shelters for evacuees displaced by the five-month siege of the city by Maute gunmen.

Major General Gilbert Gapay, commander of the Mechanized Armor Division, said they hoped to complete the construction of 60 shelters in Mipaga by February.

He said the shelters, being built in coordination with the Tarlac Heritage Foundation, would accommodate 60 families from villages inside the so-called ground zero here, or areas where the heaviest firefights took place from May 23 to October 17.

But he said the exact date of the turnover of shelters to the recipients had not been decided yet.

Gapay said the shelters were located about three kilometers from the main relocation site of Barangay Sagonsongan, where private contractors were also building over 1,700 shelters.