TF Bangon Marawi to turn over 500 temporary houses before Christmas

MANILA -- Task Force Bangon Marawi is targeting to turn over 500 temporary housing units to families affected by the crisis before Christmas, its chairman Eduardo del Rosario said Wednesday.

“Five hundred units will be turned over by the middle or third week of December. 500 families will be allowed to occupy the first 500 housing units before Christmas,” Del Rosario, who also serves as the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) chairperson, said in a press briefing.

Del Rosario said the housing units were “subjected to a land development plan” that included concrete roads, installed electricity and water facilities.

“We will be assisting those who left Marawi City that upon their return they will have something to work on. The different government (agencies) will help them and we will ensure they will have water and electrical facilities when they go back to their respective barangays,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to attend the turnover ceremony.

The government plans to build not less than 6,300 temporary housing units of which 1,170 are targeted to be completed by first quarter of 2018.

It also plans to build 2,700 permanent housing units for families who did not have homes prior to the Marawi siege, while it will provide funding for housing components for those who own land but whose houses were destroyed in the conflict.

The task force is slated to conduct field work for the post conflict needs assessment (PCNA) on Nov. 27, 2017 and is estimated to be completed in 2-3 weeks.

A comprehensive plan, however, with the coordination of the National Economic Development Authority, will be released in the last week of March.

It consists of the following: PCNA, Master Development Plan from the Marawi City local government, Master Development Plan from the Lanao del Sur provincial government.

Del Rosario also clarified the military has prohibited residents from entering ground zero and only prioritized local government officials to enter it due to the cadavers, explosives and ammunition in the site.

“When the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) completes clearing (operations) -- no more cadavers and explosives -- that’s the time we will allow them (residents) to visit before the rehabilitation. Most likely it will happen by the 1st quarter of next year,” del Rosario said.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque also said the estimated cost for the Marawi rehabilitation will be released in Jan. 2018, while the final cost will be released in March 2018.

Last Oct. 23, the president declared the city liberated from the Maute terrorist group after Hapilon and Omar Maute were killed in one of the last encounters of the five-month military operations.

The siege started from a raid conducted by the AFP and the Philippine National Police. PNA