Marawi rehab — eyed completed by December 2021— has 30% progress
MANILA, Philippines — Government on Thursday said the rehabilitation of the war-torn city of Marawi is at 30%, with only at least a year left before its own target completion by December 2021.
The months-long siege in 2017 by Islamic State-inspired Maute Group had reduced the city to rubble, displacing over 370,000 and causing at least P17 billion in damage.
At a Senate budget deliberation, the human settlements department reported that 2,859 transitory shelters have so far been completed out of its targeted 4,852.
Some 2,800 families are still in temporary shelters with government continuing to extend assistance and livelihood, according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros who sponsored the agency's funding.
But the proposed P5 billion budget for rehabilitation this year had concerned Sen. Francis Pangilinan, a view that Minority Leader Franklin Drilon raised on Wednesday.
"The indicative amount for the entire program is P60 billion and the indicative deadline as manifested by the secretary is December 2021. But the actual amount being appropriated is P5 billion," he said. "I don't think there is a way of accomplishing the targets by the deadline."
The senator was referring to a vow by Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo del Rosario in September that reconstruction efforts would be completed by December of next year, months before President Rodrigo Duterte steps down.
Hontiveros said some P36.1 billion had already been released throughout the years for the rehabilitation and the P5 billion would bring the amount to P41 billion.
Still, she said, this would leave a remaining P19 billion from the P60 billion budget, but added that Del Rosario said it may no longer be used.
"I will need to ask for further clarification from the secretary dahil kung ang target natin ay makumpleto ang rehab ng siyudad by December 2021 how could we be saying now na kahit may shortfall tayo ng [19 billion] ay 'di na kakailanganin," Hontiveros said.
(If our target is to complete the city's rehabilitation by December 2021 how then could we be saying that we would no longer need the P19 billion in shortfall?)
In October, a watchdog monitoring Marawi's rebuilding had lamented the seemingly slow progress in the reconstruction, including the lack of funds for it.
The Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch said there had been no "real liberation" since the president declared it in 2018, with no compensation for damage to properties and many staying in temporary shelters.
"With only 16 months left until the 2021 year-end deadline of completing reconstruction projects," the group said, "can the Duterte administration still deliver its promise that Marawi will rise as a prosperous and peaceful city again?"
Duterte had since responded to critics of the efforts, as he sought to explain that clearing lands of explosives and settling land titles are among the factors prolonging it.
His spokesman Harry Roque has said too that while the president is satisfied with the progress, he would want the rehabilitation fast tracked.
Estimates by the Asian Development Bank showed that the cost of damage in Marawi is at P11.5 billion, with losses at P7 billion. Displaced persons also numbered to nearly 370,000 or around 77,170 families.
The war had resulted in 168 casualties from state forces, with 114 civilians, 270 unidentified individuals and 924 men from rebel forces, still based on figures from ADB.
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