Marawi rehab seen completed by December

MANILA – All horizontal and vertical projects in this war-torn city will be finished by December this year, based on the latest assessment of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM).

TFBM chair and Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Secretary Eduardo del Rosario is confident the government will be able to meet the rehabilitation timeline by the end of 2021 as they only need to work on 30 percent of the overall projects.

“With regards to the ongoing horizontal and vertical projects in the Marawi rehabilitation, we are about 70 to 75 percent complete. We are on track to complete all these projects by December of 2021,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

In his visit to Marawi City last week, del Rosario graced turnover activities of housing units to Maranao families severely affected by the five-month siege in 2017.

He said the TFBM and its 56 implementing agencies are determined to hasten the rehabilitation of the city and provide quality living conditions for the conflict-afflicted residents.

Key shelter agencies, such as Social Housing Finance Corporation and National Housing Authority, have been coordinating with the TFBM to establish sustainable resettlement sites.

Last week alone, the TFBM turned over 170 permanent houses to informal settler families, followed by the transfer of 120 two-bedroom housing units to members of eight local homeowners associations and awarded 50 Japan donated-permanent housing units.

In February, some 109 internally displaced families were initially transferred to the permanent housing units.

Over 200 permanent houses built within Marawi’s most affected area are slated to be turned over next month, del Rosario added.

Through donations from private housing developers, repair and reconstruction are ongoing in mosques, with Masjid Darussalam already inaugurated on Thursday.

Completed infrastructures so far are the Armed Forces of the Philippines Marawi Maritime Outpost, Mapandi Bridge, Banggolo Bridge, Marawi City Fire Substation, and the Philippine National Police Community Police Assistance Center 1.

“Marawi residents are now beginning to enjoy the initial fruition of the massive rehabilitation, indicating the fulfillment of President Rodrigo Duterter’s promise that Marawi will rise again as a prosperous city,” del Rosario said.