Immediate rehab that is sensitive
OFFICIALS and ordinary people alike are calling for the immediate rehabilitation of Marawi City as terror leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omarkhayyam Maute were finally taken down by army and police commandos, Monday.
The national government long before this finally happened have vowed immediate rehabilitation as well and have apologized to the hundreds of thousand Maranaos for the devastation their city and properties were subjected to.
Administrative Order No. 3 dated June 28, 2017 named the officers and members of the Task Force Bangon Marawi: chair Secretary of National Defense, vice chair - Secretary of Public Works and Highways and members:
Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Secretaries of Education, Budget and Management, Energy, Health, Information and Technology, Interior and Local Government, Science and Technology, Social Welfare and Development, Trade and Industry, Transportation, and the Office of the Cabinet Secretary with the chairpersons of the Local Water Utilities Administration, Mindanao Development Authority, and the National Electrification Administration, the general manager of the National Housing Authority, the Director-General of the National Economic Development Authority, the Director General of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the Administrator of the Office of Civil Defense and a representative of the Office of the President. That it read as a who’s who in the Duterte Cabinet, the message sent is clear: Marawi rehabilitation gets high priority such that the members are those who have the power to tell their departments what to do. That done, then these same Cabinet members are expected to approach this important task with their sensitivities and sensibilities radar at full-throttle.
Among the close to half a million, who were displaced, there will always be those who now hate government with all their heart. That’s understandable as the war flattened the Islamic city’s poblacion. Among the close to half a million who fled the war, majority will be hanging on to hope but are most likely broken.
This is the time when the people have to feel that the rehabilitation is intended to help them recover from this devastation as fast as possible. This is the time when measures must be put in place to have a direct sounding board to the Task Force Bangon Marawi through trusted representatives (as it will be impossible to listen and attend to close to half a million) so that civil society can give valuable inputs that will ensure a sensitive approach to rehabilitation.
This is the only way to hasten not just the physical rehabilitation of a city but that of the people as well. The greater challenge is to ensure that the victims do not become victims all over, as the victims of typhoon Yolanda were when their temporary shelters were of sub-human dimensions and the Aquino Administration failed to provide the housing units to the survivors as soon as possible and to as many as possible. The greater challenge is for the residents to own the rehabilitation that is going to be put in place and in the process embark on the process of healing broken lives on this broken land.