Marawi rebuilds from the ruins of May 23, 2017 infamous siege
FOR the people of Marawi City, the fateful date of May 23 not only reopens a lot wounds, but also inflames with even greater vigor their will to face the future, along with the peace and prosperity it may bring.
There were untold stories of daring escapes, rescue, and starvation, and the residents’ will to survive, and their tenacity found comfort in economic and social displacements.
It may be recalled that one vital component of the city’s defense from the terror siege six years ago was the communications base set up for the residents by Lanao del Sur Gov. Bombit Alonto Adiong Jr. at the provincial capitol building, and unaltered since Day One. This had kept Marawi City within the sphere of monitoring and information exchanges with the rest of the world.
The masked black- dressed extremists had occupied the Marawi City Hall and the functional uninterrupted radio and other communications systems helped authorities reach out to Marawi City Mayor Majul Bandambra at his office at the height of the siege.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo dared to enter Marawi City for the kindred and his wife Ross who was in the city on the first day of the siege on May 23. He recalled that residents fled the heavy fighting that lasted for weeks, escaping through the “backdoor” to reach peace and quiet within the mountain ranges of
Kapai and Tagoloan townships northeast of strife-torn Marawi.
The Philippine Army Scout Rangers took the same route to reach Marawi and reinforce government troops already in the thick of the fighting on “Ground Zero.”
The augmentation units included the elite Marines of the Philippine Navy to buttress an assault force moving toward the Banggolo Bridge on the third day of the siege.
Sinarimbo now heads the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MILG-BARMM)
But the memories and emotional scars of the that nightmarish weeks of siege of their beloved city lingered even as the people began picking up the pieces to rebuild their shattered lives after the last bullet was fired.
Even the womenfolk walked the extra mile to help in the reconstruction process.
Amir Sab Paisal Macatanong opened his family- owned two-hectare fertile agricultural land for the evacuees to grow vegetables in and sell their products to neighboring provinces to survive the famine and poverty that followed not much later.
Mariam Naik, the municipal agriculture officer of Saguiaran, Marilou Sopocado, provincial coordinator of the High-Value Crop Development Program, and Senior Agriculturist and Alfreda Telto— all women— helped develop a model self-reliant relocation site for the Marawi evacuees, hosted by residents of Barangay Pagalamatan in nearby Saguiaran town.
Efforts were heightened to effectively prevent all possibilities for the infamous siege to ever happen again.
Improving governance and security preparedness at community level in the neighboring villages is the key to sustainable recovery, says Minister Sinarimbo of the MILG- BARMM.
The MILG implements the BARMM counterpart of the Marawi Rehabilitation Program, allocated with a Special Development Fund Program for Marawi Rehabilitation (SDFPMR) under the Office of Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Al-Hadj Murad Ebrahim.
Lady Mayor Khalida Palao Sangila of Pagayawan said as a mother that she is, there is a soft spot in one’s heart. But as a leader a woman has to be firm and decisive on issues affecting her more than 6,000 constituents.