Tent city to rise in Marawi

A tent city for homeless residents may soon rise in Marawi City once the armed conflict is over.

The government intends to hasten the acquisition of tents for distribution to thousands of families displaced by the rebellion in Marawi, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo announced yesterday.

Instead of giving away money for emergency shelter, Taguiwalo proposed the family-sized tents could be used as temporary shelter of the Marawi residents while the rebuilding of the conflict-torn city is implemented.

“We are procuring now family-sized tents. Actually, we have started the procurement three weeks ago in preparation for the return of our evacuees to Marawi City and we hope to provide individual tents per families,” she said in a Palace news conference.

“This can be immediately used rather than the emergency shelter assistance where you have to wait for the validation etc. before you can have it so that’s the plan,” she said.

Taguiwalo said each tent can accommodate eight persons and has windows similar to an ordinary house.

“Habang ang physical construction of the city is ongoing, may place to stay sila at least ‘yung tents na matitirhan nila,” she said.

The tent procurement, however, suffered some problems after a failure of bidding last Wednesday, according to Taguiwalo.

To hasten the tent acquisition, the DSWD suggested to make procurement procedures less stringent amid the “emergency” situation.

“We’re still fast-tracking it so we’re prepared for that,” she assured. “I have instructed our Asec who’s doing the bidding to make sure na hindi na mag-fail sa susunod,” she added.

She said they also welcome assistance from other organizations that might want to provide additional tents for the homeless families.

At present, the DSWD recorded 69,434 families that have fled their homes from the conflict in Marawi. Only five percent of the displaced families are living in evacuation centers while others are “home based” in other parts of Mindanao, Taguiwalo said.

Majority of the evacuees, or around 38,000 families, has taken refuge in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.