Duterte passes Marawi rebuilding to ‘rich residents,’ businessmen
Credit to Author: CATHERINE S. VALENTE, TMT| Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2019 02:45:20 +0000
SAN FERNANDO CITY, PAMPANGA: President Rodrigo Duterte said he would let rich residents and businessmen of Marawi City to fully restore the war-torn city, saying the government would not spend money anymore.
Duterte made the statement as he admitted that he “doesn’t think he’s ready” to rebuild Marawi to its state before the 2017 siege.
“I don’t think that I should be spending for their buildings. Hindi ako maggagasto ng ano (I will not spend anything, the people there have the money),” the President said in a situation briefing at the provincial capitol here following the strong quake that hit parts of Luzon late Monday afternoon.
“Marami man ‘yang pera ‘yang mga tao diyan (The people there have a lot of money). Every Maranao, there is a businessman. Kasali na ‘yang shabu. May pera sila (Count the shabu trade, they have the money). The debate there is whether I would be also building the same kind that they lost. I don’t think I am ready for that,” he added.
Duterte also pointed out that the Marawi crisis was a “man-made calamity.”
“It was bound to happen because of what they were doing there,” the President said.
Meanwhile, Duterte praised the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and its chairman Eduardo del Rosario for the housing projects for the displaced persons in Marawi.
“The thing I admired most was the speed that you built the houses in Marawi,” the President said.
“They say Marawi is not yet ready to… The epicenter was really the downtown. But the informal settlers, the squatters so to speak, ‘yung ginawa ni Del Rosario (what Del Rosario did) was really good. It’s sturdy, it can stand another whatever,” he added.
More than 900 terrorists, 47 civilians and 165 government troops were killed after homegrown Maute terrorists laid siege to Marawi on May 23, 2017, which prompted a battle between Islamic State-inspired combatants and government troops for five months.
Some 300,000 residents were displaced, while houses and buildings were turned to rubble during the siege.
The government has set aside P67.99 billion for the city’s comprehensive rehabilitation.
As of February, the Finance Department said over P40 billion has been raised through concessional loans as well as international grants.
Task Force Bangon Marawi had said authorities hoped to complete the rehabilitation by December 2021.
Among the infrastructure and facilities to be built on the ground zero are ports and wharves within Lanao Lake, schools, and wider road networks with underground utilities for power, water, and telecommunication similar to the design of Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
Also to be built are sewage treatment plants, convention center, museum, parking building, peace memorial park, market, sanitary landfill, and lakeside promenade.
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