MARAWI City ― Residents here hailed the enactment of the Marawi Compensation Act saying it offered “ a relief to their struggle and suffering” after a five-month bloody street fighting between government forces and Maute militants destroyed most of their homes and businesses in 2017.
Nearly five years after the military ended the siege and killed the top militants who led it, sections of Marawi, the only Islamic city in the Philippines remains uninhabitable.
Thousands of its residents are still living in transitional shelter houses that mushroomed on the outskirts of the city.
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Parliament Member Zia Alonto Adiong said the Marawi Compensation Act or Republic Act 11696 “unequivocally” acknowledges the claims of Marawi residents to their land and reparations.
“The people of Marawi know how difficult the process of healing and rebuilding but having the law affirms our years of struggle and suffering,” said Adiong whose ancestral home was among those destroyed during the fighting.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed RA 11696 two weeks ago allowing the creation of a nine-member board that would process the claims of the Marawi residents.
The law did not state a figure for how much money Marawi residents could receive to compensate for their destroyed homes and properties.
Musa Sanguila, Director of Pakigdait, a grassroots, interfaith and peace-building civil society organization said the money for compensation must be included in the General Appropriations Act of the Department of Budget to ensure that the Marawi residents can be paid.
“Without the money, compensating the residents would be nothing but cheap words,” Sanguila said.
Drieza Lininding, head of the Marawi Consensus Group said RA 11696 would become a precedent in any future conflicts that would result in the lives and properties of the Moro people.
“There will be no more Moro life, properties, and communities that can be destroyed without due compensation or paying the price,” Lininding said.
The NGO International Alert Philippines said the Act establishes a precedent for future victims of war and destruction and is an important milestone for the Marawi residents.
“We now have a stronger resolve to move forward, begin rebuilding our properties and trace our path to recovery,” Jalilah Saplin, a member of the Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch NGO, said.
Charlito Manlupig, chair of Balay Mindanao Foundation congratulated Marawi residents and the survivors saying RA 11696 “is not just about compensation but more importantly about pushing what is just for the residents.”
