May 25, 2021
Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch, a partner of International Alert Philippines, thanks Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa for his reassurance that government has not forgotten the people of Marawi City, the site of intense fighting in 2017 between government forces and an ISIS-inspired terrorist group.
"We invite him to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in pushing for the urgent passage of the Marawi Compensation Bill. For us, the internally displaced peoples of Marawi, just compensation serves as our last hope to be able to rebuild our lives," MRCW also says.
October 18, 2020
Three years since its liberation, Vice Leni Robredo renews the call for a more urgent approach to the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi.
The vice president also calls for the government's commitment to the rebuilding of a more peaceful and prosperous city.
"Liberation entails much more than silencing the gunfire," Robredo says.
May 24, 2020
Sen. Risa Hontiveros joins calls to highlight the plight of displaced residents of Marawi City more than three years after the siege that destroyed a large part of the capital of Lanao del Sur.
"The bloody and violent siege that took place in Marawi is still alive in the displacement of our sisters and brothers three years later, today. That is 1,095 days of worsening poverty and violence that they have suffered because we still have not made their pain a priority," she says in a statement Sunday.
She says the pandemic makes the displacement of Marawi resdients even more painful as they wait for reconstruction in the city.
"Dahil habang tayo ay nakakulong sa ating mga tahanan, karamihan sa kanila ay wala pa ring mauuwian (While we are confined to our homes, most of them still have no homes at all). Washing hands, social distancing, staying healthy and earning income despite everything are especially heavy when you have not even been given the opportunity to properly recover economically, socially and psychologically, from the trauma and pain of a bloody war."
May 23, 2020
The Liberal Party says Marawi residents should return to their homes three years after the bloody Marawi siege, also the eve of the Muslim celebration of the end of Ramadan, or Eid’l Fitr.
“Kasama kami sa ating mga kapatid na Muslim sa pagdiriwang ng Eid'l Fitr,” says Liberal Party president Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.
“Kakaiba ang pagdiriwang ngayong taon, may lockdown at paghihigpit dahil sa sakit na COVID-19. Pinatindi nito ang hirap na dinadanas nila mula pa 2017. Naaalala pa natin ang mga nasirang buhay at kabuhayan ng mga kapatid nating Muslim. Hanggang ngayon, hindi pa nila naramdaman ang rehab ng gobyerno,” he adds.
February 19, 2020
There are 422 families living in nine evacuation centers and community-based centers in Marawi, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says in a Mindanao briefer citing December data.
"More than 10,000 families are home-based or staying with host communities according to the Task Force Bangon Marawi. Validation continues in informal ECs and community-based centers."
January 31, 2020
The city government of Marawi and Task Force Bangon Marawi held the 16th "Kawiyagan" to provide services, programs and livelihood assistance to residents of the city.
"The Kawiyagan, a Maranao term which means livelihood, is a regular activity spearheaded by the City Government of Marawi and Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), which aims to provide much-needed humanitarian and livelihood assistance to those affected by the 2017 siege," the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process says.
December 29, 2019
The Office of the Vice President has helped put in P12.89 million into a housing project for those displaced by the 2017 Marawi Siege, Vice President Leni Robredo says on her weekly radio show,
"Matapos ang pagkakapit-bisig para sa relief efforts dito, nakatutok na tayo ngayon sa pag-alalay sa ating mga kababayan sa rehabilitasyon ng kanilang siyudad. Pinakamalaking proyekto natin kaugnay niyan ang Angat Buhay Village, kung saan higit 12.89 million pesos na ang naibuhos nating resources, sa tulong ng ating mga private partners," she says.
The Angat Buhay program, which connects private sector "partners" with communities, has also linked womens' groups in the capital of Lanao del Sur with partners who will help them develop their products and bring them to bigger market.
"Sa taong ito rin ay sinimulan natin ang pakikipagtulungan sa tanyag na accounting firm na Ernst & Young, sa pamamagitan ng isang all-expense paid internship program para sa 17 accountancy students mula sa Mindanao State University - Marawi. Dahil sa husay na ipinakita ng mga mag-aaral sa kabila ng matinding pinagdaanan, nag-commit ang Ernst & Young na mabibigyan sila ng trabaho. Higit pa riyan, ang internship program ay bubuksan rin para sa mga estudyante ng iba pang kurso gaya ng IT at HR," she also says.
October 4, 2019
The Bangsamoro government provided more than a thousand families in Marawi City with basic services as part of its Project Tabang, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao's Bureau of Public Information says.
"Friday's Project Tabang included the conduct of free medical and dental services, and legal services; the distribution of free medicines, relief packs, hygiene kits and garbage bins; a feeding program and a job fair," BPI says in a release.
The beneficiaries have been living in an evacuation site in Barangay Boganga since the Marawi Siege in 2017.
"Project Tabang or the Tulong Alay sa Bangsamorong Nangangailangan was launched by the Bangsamoro government on September 2, 2019 as a flagship program on bringing basic government services to communities across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao," BPI also says.
September 10, 2019
Sen. Risa Hontiveros says she will meet with the Department of Health and the Department of National Defense to help uniformed personnel who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder through the Philippine Mental Health Law, she says in a press statement.
"PTSD is a hidden war wound, one which manifests itself in anger, violence towards others, alcoholism and other unhealthy coping mechanisms," she says.
The statement is in response to a series of news reports detailing how military personnel are suffering PTSD and trauma from combat, particularly after the battle for Marawi in 2017.
"Alam kong ang military ay may kultura ng pagiging macho. Pero hindi sana ito hadlang sa pagkakaroon ng maayos na mental health services at support lalong-lalo na sa mga kababayang nanggaling sa conflict at mga madugong engkuwentro," Hontiveros says.
(I know the military has a culture of being macho, but I hope this does not become a hindrance to getting proper mental health services and support, especially among fellow Filipinos who have been through conflict and bloody encounters.)
June 3, 2019
Vice President Leni Robredo is renewing a call for the government to ramp up rehabilitation work in Marawi, part of which remains in ruins two years after the battle to reclaim it from Islamic State-linked terrorists.
“[N]apakaraming gustong tumulong, pero sa dami ng gustong tumulong, dapat yata iyong pamahalaan iyong manguna dito,” she says in a press release based on her radio show on Sunday.
“Lalong ma-inspire iyong mga tao na tumulong kasi nakikita nila kung saan pupunta iyong tulong. Kung tumutulong sila tapos hindi nagagastos iyong tulong, parang nasayang. Nasayang na ang daming nanghihingi ng tulong, nandiyan na iyong tulong, pero bakit hindi naipapamahagi?” she says in response to an audit report that foreign donations have not been disbursed to the survivors of the siege.
“Ngayon tinitingnan ko naman iyong mga report ng mga team namin on the ground, iyong provincial government saka iyong city government, marami na din namang tuloy-tuloy na programang ginagawa. Pero iyong pinaka-simbolismo kasi na may nangyayari, iyong Ground Zero. Hanggang wala pang nangyayari sa Ground Zero, parang iyong impresyon wala pang nangyayari talaga,” she also says.
May 31, 2019
The Office of Civil Defense assures the public that the funds for the victim of the Marawi siege amounting to P36.91 million is still with the agency and not missing.
This after the Commission on Audit flagged the OCD's "poor utilization" of donations for the victims of Marawi siege, saying the agency only spent P10,000 out of almost P37 million aid received.
October 17, 2018
Senate hopeful Samira Gutoc, a former member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, raises her concern about the fate of Marawi City and its residents a year since it was liberated. "The liberation of Marawi one year ago ended the presence of the ISIS-inspired Maute group, but left the city in ruins and its people with uncertain fate," she says. "Hundreds of families continue to live in temporary shelters around the city and more than 70,000 outside the city, away from ground zero. Construction of structures has been at a slow pace. Residents volunteering to help build their homes are not permitted.... Where is the P10 billion government fund channeled to Marawi’s rehabilitation. On top of this, a P3.5-billion fund from the calamity fund was also earlier earmarked for the city." She adds that the public should be informed about "the role of the Chinese government or Chinese firms in the rebuilding of the city." "Several groups representing the residents in Marawi are wary that handing the city’s rehabilitation to the Chinese financiers could make the folks lose land in the process. Business ventures in the plan to rebuild the city could also mean that the residents would have little or no voice because the primary goal would be recouping the investors’ money."August 10, 2018
The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will work together to help in the rehabilitation of Marawi City, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process says in a press statement.
OPAPP says panels have agreed to revive the Joint Coordination, Monitoring and Assistance Center, which was used to rescue trapped civilians during the siege of the city by Islamic State-inspired terrorists.
The JCMAC helped in the creation of peace corridors for the rescue of civilians and for the entry of relief supplies and assistance to those affected by the siege.
Undersecretary Nabil Tan, Deputy Presidential Peace Adviser and Chair of the Government Implementing Panel for the Bangsamoro peace accords, says in the release that the first JCMAC was "a very good testament of the effective partnership that happened between the Philippine government and the MILF during the Marawi siege."
Mohagher Iqbal, the chair of the MILF Implementing Panel, says the reactivation is "a very modest intervention on the part of the MILF… in partnership with the government."
Vice President Leni Robredo releases a statement a year after the siege in Marawi. She says that even though the battle has ended, the fight to bring back to normal the lives and livelihood of Marawi residents continues.
"Marami pa ring pamilya ang walang permanenteng bahay at maayos na hanapbuhay. Maraming mga mamamayan ang nangangailangan pa rin ng ayuda," she says.
"Sinimulan na ng pamahalaan ang proseso ng rehabilitasyon. Nakiisa ang ating opisina rito sa pagtayo ng Angat Buhay Village sa Barangay Sagongsongan, sa Marawi, na magsisilbing kabahagi ng mga transitory shelter para sa mga nawalan ng tahanan sa pinakanasalantang bahagi ng Marawi. Mahalaga ang mga pagkilos na ito, at marami pang kailangang gawin para makabangon nang tuluyan muli ang Marawi."
Bahagi nito ang pagkilala na maliban sa mga gusaling nagiba at buhay na nasira, kailangang pangalagaan ang boses ng mga taga-Marawi sa pagsasagawa ng rehabilitasyon. Ang tinig na pinakamahalagang mapakinggan ay galing sa mga pamayanan na naapektuhan ng digmaan.