EDITORIAL - Challenges in Marawi

Civic groups actively involved in the rehabilitation efforts estimate that only half of the population displaced by the siege of Marawi that began on May 23, 2017 have returned to the city. The rebuilding particularly of the downtown area that bore the brunt of five months of heavy firefights is also far from complete, preventing the full resumption of economic activities.

Nobody expected the rehabilitation of the devastated city to be easy. The Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists who laid siege to Marawi planted landmines, slowing down clearing and rebuilding efforts after the city was finally liberated by government forces. As in natural calamities, there was talk of building back better after the siege, but this is always easier said than done.

The siege seemed to enjoy a level of grassroots support in Marawi and apparently caught the intelligence community by surprise; top government security officials were with President Duterte in Moscow when the attack got underway, forcing him to cut short his Russian trip and return to the Philippines.

Why that grassroots support developed, and whether it is still there pose as much of a challenge as building back better in the battered city. Even as Marawi’s rehabilitation proceeds in earnest, security concerns continue to dampen economic activities and the revival of what used to be a robust tourism industry in a city with a uniquely Islamic culture in a predominantly Catholic country.

Apart from sharing IS aspirations for the creation of a pan-Islamic caliphate, the Mautes tapped local grievances that feed insurgencies and extremism, notably poverty and underdevelopment, which cannot be fully addressed even in five years. These problems will have to be confronted decisively if the government wants to prevent a repeat of the siege.