Marawi returning to normal
A year after 5-month war
The spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Joint Task Force (AFP-JTF)Ranao yesterday said that a large portion of Marawi has returned to normalcy almost a year since members of the terrorist Maute Group terrorized the city.
In an interview, Col. Romeo Brawner said that almost all areas in the city have already been accessed by civilians, except 24 barangays which are considered the most affected areas or the so-called “ground zero.”
"Right now the situation here in Marawi is peaceful and we have lots of kababayans who have already returned to their homes. We can say that a big portion of Marawi is back to normal," Brawner said in Filipino.
Brawner said they were still not allowing civilians to return to their homes in the 24 barangays which are part of ground zero due to the possible presence of unexploded ordnance or bombs.
However, residents were allowed to enter their barangays from April 1 to May 10 to salvage some of the belongings which they could still use.
"We allowed them (residents) per barangay three days to salvage some of their belongings. This started on April 1 up to May 10 and we can say that almost all residents have seen their homes and now we are again closing the most affected areas so that the clearing operations of unexploded bombs can continue," Brawner said.
Brawner said, based on the latest reports, they received from their engineers, about 85 percent of unexploded ordnance have already been recovered.
"According to our engineers, about 85 percent of the affected areas have been cleared from the bombs that were dropped by our planes that did not explode," Brawner said.
"There are still many to be retrieved, there are about 70 bombs dropped that did not explode and so far we only recovered 19 of them. So there are still many yet to be found," he added.
Brawner said members of the AFP's Engineering Brigade and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Unit are task to find it.
AFP Chief of Staff General Carlito Galvez earlier said that the full rehabilitation of Marawi City which was devastated by war last year will go on full swing on June 15.
Galvez said he recently went to the war-torn city to prepare the commanders for the rehabilitation of the city and to ensure that the projects there will not be impeded.
"We have to make sure that it (rehabilitation efforts) will be unimpeded, it will be safe, and our contractors will not be hampered by any threat of kidnapping or any aggressions from the Maute-ISIS," Galvez said.