Marawi rehab assessment completed by year-end

FILE: Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) chairperson and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Secretary Eduardo del Rosario on Friday said the task force hopes to complete post-conflict needs assessment (PCNA) for the entire Marawi City before the end of December. (Photo by Mark Jhomel, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA — Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) chairperson and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Secretary Eduardo del Rosario on Friday said the task force hopes to complete post-conflict needs assessment (PCNA) for the entire Marawi City before the end of December.

In a Palace briefing, Del Rosario said the Task Force is hoping the military can clear the main battle area of stragglers, unexploded ordnance, and possible booby traps by the end of November so that they can complete the PCNA before the end of the year.

At present, the PCNA for Clusters 1–10, comprising 49 barangays (villages) have already been completed.

The PCNA for Clusters 11-20, comprising 47 barangays, where the fiercest battles were fought, remains suspended as military personnel conducts clearing operations.

“Hopefully, by third week or last week of November, it (clearing) will be done already so that we can start with the PCNA at the soonest possible time. Once it is done by, let’s say, the first week of December, it (PCNA) can be completed in two weeks,” Del Rosario said.

He said it would then take another week to finish a full written account of the estimates for the remaining 47 barangays.

“Then they will devote one week for the write-ups so that they will combine the 49 and plus the 47 barangays, then we can come up with the workable figure, an amount that would be needed to rehabilitate Marawi City,” Del Rosario said.

“Once we have determined the total damages and opportunity loss then we will factor in now the rehabilitation cost of the damages and the opportunity loss. And that’s the time that we can compute and make plans for the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Plan of Marawi,” he said.

He said the National Economic and Development Authority will lead the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Plan of Marawi, in coordination with other agencies, local government units, non-government organizations and civil society organizations.

In the meantime, Del Rosario said they intend to distribute transitional shelters to around 500 to 600 families before Christmas as part of government interventions to displaced families in Marawi City.

These are located in Barangay Sagonsongan where the government is building a total of 1,175 temporary housing units.

Each shelter has an area of 22 square meters with a toilet and bath.

The housing project, located about two kilometers from the provincial capitol, comes complete with concrete roads with drainage, electricity and potable water.

The San Miguel Foundation has also pledged to build 5,000 permanent housing units for returning evacuees.

Meanwhile, families residing in nine of the 49 barangays earlier cleared by the military were already permitted to return to their homes.

Del Rosario said there would be a gradual phasing for the return of evacuees in the remaining 40 barangays in proper coordination with the concerned LGUs and clearance for the military.

Each returning family was provided with food assistance good for 17 days, consisting of one sack of rice, 50 cans of assorted canned goods and a PHP 5,000 financial assistance.

“The focus of early interventions are the delivery of food, water, electricity, housing, livelihood, health services and hospital facilities that were destroyed, the classrooms, place of worship, wet and dry market and road networks,” De Rosario said.