MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 24 May) – Acmad, 45, was given a job to guard a ruined three-story building in downtown Marawi city and four years later he is still there keeping a watchful eye.
Acmad shares with his family a small dilapidated room with a gaping hole on its walls, a reminder of the bloody five-month fighting between government troops and ISIS-inspired Maute militants who took over Marawi City on May 23, 2017.
“The owner is still waiting for the money to repair this building and he has been waiting for four years,” he told MindaNews as he pointed at the damage of the battle-scarred building.
Seven years after the fighting between the militants and government forces ended, many of Marawi’s more than 200,000 residents are still living in villages and temporary shelters that sprouted outside the city.
Drieza Liningding , chair of the Moro Consensus Group said most of the city’s residents who were affected by the 2017 fighting are unable to rebuild or repair their properties and houses.
Liningding said this is one of the reasons why many affected residents could not return to what is referred to as “Most Affected Area,” where the fighting took place.
“The reparation money paid by the Marawi Compensation Board (MCB) to pay for the lost properties and houses is not enough considering the inflation in the Philippines,” he said.
Fatma Baraocor, a claimant, said she rejected the P200,000 given to her by the MCB to repair her two-story house in Barangay East Marinaut.
“The prices of cement, gravel and building materials have gone up since the time my house was damaged seven years ago,” Baraocor told MindaNews by phone.
The MCB was established under Republic Act No. 11696 or the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022 that was enacted by Congress on April 13, 2022.
It is tasked to distribute the amount of P1 billion as payment for the lives, properties, houses and jewelries lost during the fighting.
During a press conference in Marawi City last January, MCB Board Member Mabandes Diron Jr. said the government would pay 35,000 pesos per square meter for any concrete building destroyed or damaged and about half of that amount for wooden houses.
He said those who lost a relative or a loved one in the fighting are eligible for a compensation package of P350,000.
MCB Secretary lawyer Sittie Raifah Pamaloy-Hassan said the MCB has processed the applications from 20,000 claimants since January this year.
Hassan said that of the claims, 379 cases were death claims for relatives allegedly killed during the fighting.
She said the MCB has paid more than P175 million for claims that were approved after rigorous scrutiny.
She said the MCB has chosen to adopt the real estate appraisal of the Lanao del Sur provincial government instead of Marawi’s as the basis for the payment of properties lost.
“The province has a higher appraisal of properties compared to the city. We chose the highest syempre,” Hassan told reporters during a press conference.
The payment scheme is wracked by complaints from affected residents who held press conferences and attended the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee meeting in Manila on Tuesday. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
