(EDITORS NOTE: This article is made after the eighth year commemoration of the end of the Marawi Siege last October 17.)
MARAWI CITY, Philippines – In Barangay Piindolonan, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur, lies a temporary shelters known as Bakwit Village Phase 2, which have served as a refuge for hundreds of families displaced by the 2017 Marawi Siege.
Donated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the site which is six kilometers away from Marawi was meant to serve as a temporary shelter for a period of five years. Yet eight years have passed, as the promise of compensation and rehabilitation for their houses lost in Marawi remain unfulfilled, more than 400 families have been calling this place their home.
The once sturdy shelters are now showing the toll of time, with walls rusting, floors loosened, and repairs becoming part of the families’ daily lives. With limited means, these displaced residents patch holes, reinforce walls and build small extensions to make their shelters livable.
Many of the displaced turn to small-scale livelihood to pay for electricity and rent, holding on to resilience amid hardship.
But as the extended lease is nearing its end in 2026, the land where the village is built is set to be reclaimed by its owners. Uncertainty looms for the families, the fear of displacement becomes an escapable pressure for them all.
A 68-year old IDP in Bakwit Village in Saguiaran sews make-shift streamers from thrift clothes to serves as decorations for an upcoming community clean-up drive.
A 70-year-old IDP prepares hand-woven rags made from thrifted clothes which will sold while roaming the streets of Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.
Inside one of the temporary shelters in the Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur, Meranaw families make do with loosed floors and cramped spaces which they fix with patches and extensions.
A bathroom sink now serves as a support to the foundation of a rusting shelter in the Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.
A kitchen extension made of repurposed wood was gradually put together by an IDP family at Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.
Collapsing floors of temporary shelters are covered with thin wood planks and rusted metal grids in the Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.
After eight years, these temporary shelters in Bakwit Village, Barangay Pindolonan, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur are slowly rusting and chipping apart.
IDP children play on crumbling old abandoned furniture in Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.
These padlocked shelters at Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur were abandoned by its previous IDP residents due to unlivable conditions.
A sari-sari store serves as a source of livelihood for an IDP family as well as an extension of their cramped shelter in Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.
Temporary shelters in Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur are damaged by rusting steel support beams and flooring.
Some of the shelters at Bakwit Village, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur that have been abandoned now lie with broken windows and loosed floorings.
