Reconsider plan for new military camp in Marawi – IBP

COTABATO CITY — The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), through its chapter in Lanao del Sur, is appealing to President Duterte to reconsider the plan to establish another military camp in Marawi City.

“Building (another) military camp will only aggravate the flame of indignation already brimming in the hearts of young Maranaos dispossessed of their lands (in) the Marawi siege and denied of economic opportunities because of unfair treatment or discrimination from their fellow Filipinos,” lawyer Aminodin L. Macalandap, president of the IBP-Lanao Sur chapter, said Thursday.

The President had earlier issued Memorandum Order No. 41 mandating the establishment of a second military camp on a hilly site of the old city hall in Marawi.

The Philippine Historical Institute deems the site as sacred with high sentimental value in Maranao culture requiring preservation, according to Marawi City Mayor Majul Gandamra, in an earlier interview by the Manila Bulletin.

Mayor Gandamra, a lawyer, said Maranao families that had donated parts of their lands for the old city hall site at Kapantaran in Marawi City were opposed to the idea of building a new military camp on the same area.

In his statement, Macalandap said “the IBP-Lanao del Sur joins the dissenting voices of the community in staunchly opposing the creation of a second military camp in the area.”

“We recognize the immense responsibility of the President to secure the safety of the people. But then, this power should be balanced with the rights of the people over their private properties, as well as the rights of the Maranao people over their ancestral lands,” Macalandap said.

Macalandap asked: “Is building a second military camp – and the consequent taking of private properties – absolutely and genuinely necessary when Kampo Ranao already exists within Marawi City?”

Kampro Ranao refers to the decades-old camp of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade located almost in the heart of the country’s lone Islamic City.

Maranao civil society groups led by the Saksi Islamic Radio Forum (SIRF) launched lately a campaign to gather one million signatures to oppose building of another military camp in the city. The group had initially mustered 100,000 signatures and coupled the specimen with a letter of appeal submitted to the Office of the President early this month.