CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY,Philippines – Construction of new public infrastructures in the most affected area (MAA) of Marawi City will start this December after the retrieval and disposal of unexploded bombs is almost complete, a government official said.
Eduardo del Rosario, chairperson of both Task Force Bangon Marawi and Housing and Urban Coordinating Council, said the government can now begin to build infrastructures destroyed by the war as the military almost cleared the MAA of unexploded ordnances (UXOs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
“The heart and soul of Marawi rehabilitation, as far as infrastructure is concerned, is focused on the MAA,” he said in a press briefing Thursday (Nov. 28).
He added the clearing of UXOs is 95% complete while the MAA has been 99% cleared of IEDs.
The timeframe for the construction of vital government infrastructures has been set between December 2019 and March 2020. It gives priority to school buildings with 200 classrooms, 24 barangay halls with health center and madrasa, 50-bed capacity hospital, and the Grand Padian market. The construction of the Marawi City Police and Bureau of Fire Protection headquarters will follow.
Most of these structures, del Rosario said, will be built in the reclaimed 10-hectare land owned by the Marawi city government in the MAA, adding that the funding are all sourced from the national budget.
According to reports, P10 billion was allocated for the Marawi rehabilitation in 2018. For this year, the government earmarked P3.5 billion for the reconstruction efforts. Of this amount, P4.4 billion of the 2018 budget for the rebuilding of Marawi has remained unspent and will expire by yearend, reports said.
Del Rosario said the government is setting aside another P3.5 billion from the 2020 budget for the construction of the target public infrastructures.
Debris management and the creation of a master plan, two important components of the Marawi infrastructure rehabilitation efforts, have already been drawn up, said Roderick Ibañez, National Housing Authority regional director for Zamboanga Peninsula and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Ibañez said the ground breaking for the sports complex in Marawi is expected this December, “to boost and show that the rehabilitation is moving forward.” (davaotoday.com)
