MARAWI leaders breathed a sigh of relief after the Senate passed Senate Bill 2420 or the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2021 yesterday.
Now that the “agonizing wait “ of thousands of Marawi residents is coming to an end, the leaders urged both the Senate and the House to convene a bicameral conference to reconcile their respective versions of the Marawi compensation bill.
“We are now a step closer to rebuilding whatever is left of our properties. Our urgent call is for the Senate and House to convene and elect the bicam members,” Drieza Liningding, leader of the Marawi Consensus Group said.
The House passed its version, House Bill 9225 or the Marawi Compensation Act, last Sept. 6, 2021.
A bicam committee composed of the Senate and House has to settle the conflicting versions of the two bills before President Duterte would sign them into law.
Liningding said they hoped President Duterte would sign it before the 17th Congress would adjourn in June this year.
The reconstruction of Marawi City is a source of tension and frustration among residents affected by the war between the government and Daesh-inspired militants in 2017.
The International Alert, a non-governmental organization in its 2020 report, said close to 127,000 Marawi residents are still displaced or living in temporary shelters.
The NGO said many of the displaced residents are living with their relatives or friends and scattered all over the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Cebu, and Manila.
The Task Force Bangon Marawi, a government agency tasked to rebuild the city, reported 80 percent of the reconstruction of public facilities was completed as of December 2021.
TFBM officials said the money released by the government is however for government infrastructures only not for the reconstruction of houses and buildings owned by residents.
As a result, areas in the 24 barangays in the “Most Affected Area” are still in ruins and have been taken over by vegetation.
“That is the use of new masjids if there are no people to pray in them,” Mindanao State University history professor Tirmizy Abdullah said.
NGO worker Leah Tarhata Mehila said it is enough that Marawi residents are scattered all around the country.
“Four years of suffering is enough,” Mehila said.
Bangsamoro Transition Authority parliament member Zia Alonto Adiong said the Senate passage of the SB 2420 is “a step towards the social healing of the Marawi residents.”
“For so long the residents have suffered and (given) the money directly to the beneficiaries will lessen their frustrations,” Adiong said.
Adiong said he is glad that the Senate and House bills provide mechanisms where owners of properties that were demolished and destroyed during the five-month Marawi siege may file their compensation claims.
Marawi leader and senatorial candidate Samira Gutoc said the residents could hold the incoming administration into account if the Marawi compensation bill is passed into law before the 17th Congress adjourned.
