MANILA, Philippines — An official on Tuesday said the rebuilding of Marawi has reached 65% completion, four years since the siege and months before the government's target by end of the year.
Groups from Mindanao over the weekend pressed the Duterte administration to fast-track reconstruction in the war-torn city, saying promises have yet to be fulfilled and many who were displaced have not returned home.
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Over a Laging Handa briefing, Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario sought to assure that they remain on track to finish efforts by December 2021.
"We have to take in the methodology and understand that this cannot be done in an instant, said the housing secretary who also heads the Task Force Bangon Marawi, in Filipino.
Del Rosario said it took them nearly a year for early intervention activities or tending to the needs of those who were forced out of their homes. Some 370,000 had been displaced from the siege.
Clearing debris from the war, and removing bombs from ground zero stretched to a year and four months, he added, as he said too that those calling for quicker rehabilitation as going "off tangent."
"I will favor what legitimate organizations say that what they have in heart and mind is Marawi City's welfare," Del Rosario continued in Filipino. "But the other group of civil society organizations, all they do is criticize yet they don't do anything to help the rehabilitation on the ground."
Despite public infrastructure projects at 65%, a report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism showed that many residents have not yet secured building permits, while others had no funds.
The siege in Marawi by members of the Islamic State-inspired Maute took four months. Estimate figures on deaths are at 114 civilians, 270 unidentified individuals, 168 government troops and 924 from the rebel group.
President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire Mindanao under martial law on May 23, 2017. The said proclamation was extended and lasted for two years and seven months, or until end-2019.