Housing officials face raps over delayed Marawi projects

MANILA, Philippines — National Housing Authority (NHA) general manager Marcelino Escalada Jr. and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairman Eduardo del Rosario, who also heads Task Force Bangon Marawi, are facing graft charges over the delay in the implementation of rehabilitation projects for victims of the fighting in Marawi.

Meno Manabilang, chairman of Sowara O Miyamagoyag or the Voice of the Marawi Internally Displaced Peoples, who claims to represent some 200,000 victims, filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday.

Manabilang said CJI General Services Inc. officers and board members Jimmy Francis Hinch, Barry Jim Hinch, Julius Joseph Beredo, Noel Mendoza, Harry Cuevas and Edgardo Sagum, president of Eddmari Construction and Trading, should be included in the graft charges.

He said the ombudsman should investigate anomalies in the bidding and procurement of supplies, which have delayed rehabilitation works.

“These irregularities were... sanctioned... by the general manager of the NHA and adversely impacts on the rehabilitation,” Manabilang’s complaint read.

“It is important that these illicit operations are halted immediately and the rehabilitation of Marawi ... be put back on track in conformity with the law,”  it added.

Manabilang said limited government funds are being wasted in the award of contracts to unqualified bidders.

“As a result, we are forced to stay... longer in temporary shelters, leaving our families and communities to suffer the hardship of rebuilding lives in barely humane and dangerous conditions,” he said.