Marawi sees construction boom
MARAWI CITY— A group of soldiers on type B uniform— combat boots, pants and shirt—dug a canal in Kilala village where some 250 families displaced from their homes during the 2017 siege of this city are to be resettled.
Based on the Marawi rehabilitation plan, some 2,500 of the displaced families are no longer allowed to go back to their lakeside and riverside communities as these were declared as no-build zones due to natural risks.
The soldiers belong to the Army’s 553rd Engineering Battalion, which is building 100 houses.
In all, the United Nations Human Settlements Program, with funding from the Japanese government, will build a total of 2,500 houses in four sites in the city.
This investment in infrastructure, and others, especially from the government, is fueling a construction boom in the city, three years after state security forces wrest its control from the hands of Islamic State (IS) militants after a five-month war that devastated the main commercial district.
Last April, the national government released P3.56 billion for various projects aimed to rehabilitate the war-ravaged area, mainly for public facilities like the Grand Padian Market, 24 barangay halls each having their own health clinics, madrasahs or Islamic schools, and the road network.
Work on these projects went full blast last July, and Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, who chairs the Task Force Bangon Marawi, said many of the small ones will be completed within the year.
The 2,500 houses are also expected to be completed by March next year.
Del Rosario further said that all public facilities should be done by December next year, hence, bringing back the city’s old glory.
Private donations
Apart from funding from government, the city’s physical rehabilitation is also bankrolled by private donations, such as the ones for the reconstruction of damaged mosques that has also began. The most prominent of these is the Bato-ali mosque.
In all, some 30 religious structures were damaged during the siege, and the reconstruction of nine already have funding commitments from private entities.
Save the Children is also building an eco-hub where youth and women can train on various skills.
Liberation anniversary
Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra said that three years after the city was liberated from IS hands, the destruction still posed a painful reminder of that tragedy.
But Gandamra said that the thought of Marawi rising again due to these investments somehow eases the pain.
On Saturday, Del Rosario reopened the Banggolo bridge, which was widened to accommodate greater traffic of vehicles.
Del Rosario, along with top military officials led by Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Gilbert Gapay, marked the liberation anniversary through a wreath-laying ceremony inside the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade where a marker for fallen soldiers and police was erected.