Marawi rehab plan seen to get Duterte nod in April

The Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program (BMCRRP) is expected to get the approval of President Rodrigo R. Duterte next month, a National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) official said Friday. (Photo: Task Force Bangon Marawi/Facebook)

MANILA – The Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program (BMCRRP) is expected to get the approval of President Rodrigo R. Duterte next month, a National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) official said Friday.

During a Bangon Marawi press briefing in Iligan City, NEDA Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro said the formulation of the BMCRRP is underway and is expected to be completed before March 31.

“The NEDA will be submitting on March 31 the final BMCRRP to Task Force chair Secretary (Eduardo) Del Rosario who will in turn endorse the same to President and seek the latter’s approval. We are targeting first week of April for that,” Navarro said.

Navarro said BMCRRP contains key priority programs, projects and activities (PPAs) to be implemented outside of the most affect areas of war-ravaged Marawi City.

She said rehabilitation and recovery PPAs will deliver outcomes in six sectors, which include local governance and peace building, housing and settlement, livelihood and business deployment, physical infrastructure, social services and land resource management.

“We did a bottom-up planning process in coming up with the BMCRRP to ensure that the approach for planning for rehabilitation of Marawi City and affected localities is participatory,” Navarro said.

“We want the BMCRRP to capture the hopes and aspirations of the affected communities and give primary importance to their recommended programs, projects and activities,” she added.

Navarro said around 700 stakeholders from different sectors including local chief executives, women’s groups, religious and traditional leaders, civil society organizations, media, the academe, IDP community, youth organizations and line agencies were part of the formulation of BMCRRP.

She said BMRCCP has already listed over 860 projects on its blueprint with most of them in the livelihood and business sectors which will be implemented from 2018 to 2022.

NEDA is the lead agency of the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Planning support group under Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM).

Navarro said the BMRCCP will cover only the areas outside the 250-hectare area heavily damaged by the five-month conflict.

The TFBM has yet to select a developer out of five companies who have expressed interest to rebuild Marawi’s most affected areas.

According to TFBM, more than PHP51 billion will be needed to rebuild Marawi City.

The damages brought by the five-month conflict between government troops and ISIS-inspired groups is pegged at PHP11.5 billion, while economic opportunity losses is estimated at PHP6.7 billion.