DEPUTY Speaker Mujiv Hataman has urged President Duterte to revamp Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), the inter-agency body tasked to implement the Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (MRRRP), citing the delays in the reconstruction of the war-torn city which is set to mark the third anniversary of its siege tomorrow.
Hataman, the former governor of the old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), lamented that the TFBM has failed to effect much change during the three-year period that it was in charge of the implementation of the MRRP.
“Baka panahon na para balasahin o palitan ang pamunuan ng TFBM (Maybe it’s time to revamp or change the leadership of the TFBM). It has been three years and still, the people of Marawi have yet to return to their homes. This is actionable negligence already on the part of TFBM,” he said in a statement.
The TFBM, established on June 28, 2017 at the height of the armed conflict in Marawi, is led by its chairperson, Eduardo del Rosario of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).
Hataman said that while the country fights the COVID-19 pandemic, the people of Marawi suffers twice in this crisis “as they continue to be plagued by an outbreak of government delay and inefficiency in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of their homes three years after the 2017 siege.”
“A destroyed Marawi should not be the new normal. COVID-19 or not, the rehabilitation must go on. Construction is one activity that is the least susceptible to COVID-19 infection. It is done outdoors and workers by their nature are physically distanced from each other,” he said.
Some 25,355 families, or a total of 126,775 individuals, are still languishing in displacement as of April 2020 brought about by the siege three years ago, according to figures released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some 17,000 are in temporary shelters, and the rest are living with relatives or friends.
“How could we let people in Marawi suffer for three years? And until when are we going to prolong their agony? How do you sleep at night knowing that a lot of families are not in their homes for three years now? I hope the government gives them the utmost priority now,” Hataman, one of the principal authors of the Marawi Compensation Bill filed in the lower house, said.
According to news reports, Hataman said, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) already released last April some P3.57 billion to Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) for projects that included mass housing, so “there is no reason to delay the implementation of the MRRRP any further.”
“And as we learned the hard way, the rehabilitation has been plagued with inefficiencies and delays, including the expiration of hundreds of millions of Marawi funds that could have been used to alleviate the conditions of the people. In fact, these April releases form part of the 2019 MRRRP funds released just now. I repeat, it has been three years already,” he said.
Hataman said that while TFBM was established as early as 2017, there seems to be a lack of “coordination, efficiency and even transparency” until now.
He assured that he will continue to urge his colleagues at the House of Representatives to expedite the passage of the Marawi Compensation Bill.
The bill is up for deliberations and approval of the mother committee, the House committee on disaster management, after the technical working group chaired by Lanao del Norte Rep. Khalid Dimaporo approved its consolidated form.
