Rebuilding Marawi City

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark A. Villar would surely have his hands full when the government starts to rebuild Marawi City from the ruins of the Maute siege. No less than President Rodrigo Duterte announced earlier he would allot as much as P20 billion from the national government to at least bring back normalcy, if not fully restore Marawi City.

The siege – which led to the declaration of Mindanaowide martial law – is now one-month old. But the reconstruction of Marawi City may take a longer time given the destruction of so many schools, government offices, and other public and private buildings like mosques.

This is not to mention hundreds of lives that were lost already, many of whom included non-combatant civilians since the Maute siege started. Thousands more of Marawi folks were displaced when they were forced to flee from their homes to escape being caught in the middle of firefights between government forces and Maute terrorists.

Inspired by the extremist Islamic State (IS) international terror group, the local bandit group led by the radical Maute brothers started the Marawi siege last May 22, coinciding with President Duterte’s trip on a state visit to Russia.

Villar was among the official delegation of 16 or so Cabinet officials who flew with President Duterte to Moscow on that fateful day. Hours though after the Maute siege erupted in Marawi City, the President decided to cut short his scheduled four-day state visit in Moscow. Except for certain Cabinet officials who were there to sign bilateral agreements with their Russian counterparts, President Duterte and his official delegation immediately returned to Manila.

At this stage, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) which is still trying to regain full control of the entire Marawi City, Villar announced he has already alerted the Region X office of the DPWH to prepare plans for the rebuilding of the strife-torn city. “Once the military has completed its operation, we would come in,” Villar declared during our Kapihan

sa Manila Bay breakfast forum last Wednesday at the Cafe Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate.

Initially, he disclosed, the DPWH already has some photos showing the extent of damages sustained by the city after it was pounded by air strikes and Maute bombings in the past month’s fighting. While there maybe available funds to spend for Marawi reconstruction, Villar admitted they still do not know just how much money the government must come up with to spend for the total rehabilitation costs.

“We would only know the exact cost of the damage once we've entered the city,” Villar pointed out.

Taking note, President Duterte is prioritizing the rebuilding of Marawi, Villar believes the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) headed by Secretary Benjamin Diokno is ready and prepared to replenish the DPWH budget for such man-made calamity wrought upon the people of Marawi City. “There is a big budget for Marawi,” Villar assuaged.

Apparently, the P20 billion mentioned by President Duterte was just off-the-cuff estimates of funds needed to bankroll the reconstruction of war-torn Marawi City. The amount is twice as much as the P10-billion rehabilitation budget proposed by the Department of National Defense (DND).

Villar, however, acknowledged the national office of the DPWH has to consult and coordinate with the local government units in the reconstruction of Marawi, the capital city of Lanao del Sur. It is one of the five provinces under the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Lanao del Sur is directly supervised by the ARMM government which has its own DPWH completely autonomous from the national office of DPWH under Villar.

In fact, Villar has a Tausug counterpart, Don Loong as DPWH-ARMM Secretary. But Villar counts the DPWHARMM Secretary as one of the 10,000 engineers under the employ of the government to help rebuild Marawi City out of the ruins left of by the Maute siege. “We would help each other so we would be able to fix it (Marawi) at the soonest possible time,” Villar quipped.

Turning 39 years old this August, Villar is also observing his first year into office as DPWH Secretary on Aug. 1 since President Rodrigo Duterte swore him into office. So it will be sort of a double observance for him on his birthday and first anniversary as DPWH Secretary for the youngest Duterte Cabinet official.

He won his second term as Las Pinas Congressman when President Duterte asked him to join his Cabinet instead. His father, former Senate president Manny Villar is the titular head of the Nacionalista Party (NP) and mother, incumbent Sen. Cynthia Villar, readily gave their blessing for their son to try the Executive Branch.

Incidentally, both father and son were together in the shortened state visit of President Duterte in Moscow. The elder Villar – who has since then retired from politics and went back to their family-owned real estate conglomerate Vista Land – was part of the business delegation. They, too, flew with the chartered presidential flight back to Manila.

The House leadership decided not to hold any special elections following Villar’s confirmation by the Commission on Appointments as DPWH Secretary. The House leaders instead assigned the vacant congressional district to his wife Emmeline Aglipay-Villar, being an incumbent member of the 17th Congress as partylist representative of DIWA (Democratic Independent Workers Association).

As DPWH Secretary, Villar is one of the chief implementors of the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program of the Duterte administration. Laid down in the master plan of the Dutertenomics, Villar cited his vision to increase annual budget for infrastructure to as much as 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

At this rate, according to him, would only match those of our neighboring countries in South East Asia as the DPWH try to catch up from the “infrastructure deficit” he inherited from previous administrations through these years.

At the end of the Duterte administration in 2022, the young Villar wants to return to the private sector and enjoy raising with wife Emmie their daughter.

Like his father, Villar swears politics is out of his vision but would focus his attention to rebuild Marawi City on the immediate term. He vows to complete the massive infrastructure program long pending in the pipeline of the DPWH for the remaining five years of the Duterte administration.

“We would only know the exact cost of the damage when we have entered the city,” Villar pointed out.