Marawi residents struggle to get their lives back; thousands remain in temporary shelters
MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 20 October) — Five years after then President Rodrigo Duterte declared this city liberated from ISIS-inspired militants, residents who have been allowed to return are now trying to restore normalcy to their lives, while thousands of others are still living in temporary shelters in the outskirts.
Mamarinta Radia, 58, stood outside his newly rebuilt hardware store in Barangay Bubong Madaya Lilod, one of the areas where residents are already allowed to resettle.
Radia was lucky that his two-story building only sustained minor damage from the fighting and was able to secure a P75,000 grant from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“I was able to parlay that money and opened this hardware,” said Radia, a welder and a father of four who sells small saws and bottled fuel.
Around him one of his neighbors, “Dom,” was busy hauling sand and gravel to his house.
“Dom,” a 50-year old public school teacher who asked not to be identified voiced a lot of complaints.
He said his efforts to rebuild his family’s ancestral house has run around in circles due to numerous requirements for a building permit from the city government.
“If they want to really help us, they should do away with these requirements. They should do away with the exorbitant fees,” he said.
Most of Marawi’s section called the Main Affected Area (MAA), where the militants made their last stand, is still off-limits to residents, although the government has constructed new mosques, buildings, and a sprawling sports stadium.
Outside the section, life has slowly returned among the residents who were allowed to rebuild their lives.
“My life has improved since we ran away from the war,” Beverly Modasir, who sells fried bananas near the Amai Pakpak Medical Center said.
Madasir said she gave birth to a daughter at the temporary evacuation center inside the Lanao del Sur Provincial Capitol in 2017.
“I named her Mar-Mar for Marawi-Martial Law. It’s a remembrance of the days of how we survived as evacuees,” she said.
On the new road in front of the temporary shelters in Barangay Sagonsongan, businessman Alex Tomawis was busy supervising his workers put finishing touches to a newly opened store.
A client had just walked out from the store after buying a bronze food tray worth P4,000.
Tomawis said his store is enjoying brisk sales in house decors and sofas to residents who are refurbishing their new homes they have constructed in the city’s outskirts.
“Maranaos are traders. Pabayaan lang sana ng gobyerno ipabalik sa loob ng MAA, kami na ang bahala. Makabangon kami (Government should just allow us to go back inside the MAA and we do the rest. We can rise up again),” he said.
Drieza Liningding, said 5,000 families are still living in temporary shelters five years after the Marawi siege.
Liningding said there were some families who relocated elsewhere.
“They want to return but the government won’t allow them yet,” he said.
Mayor Majul Gandamra said water remains the number one problem if the residents are allowed back inside the MAA.
Gamdamra said the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has yet to start the construction of the P225-million bulk water system in Marawi.
He said LWUA has not even laid a single water pipe in the MAA and has not drilled a water pumping station in Barangay Caloocan.
“Sometimes gusto ko sana sisigaw (I wanted to shout) out of exasperation. Why are they taking it too long?” he said. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
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