Marawi rehab to go 'full blast' in July -official

"Full blast construction activity" will commence in Marawi City in July, more than two years after a months-long armed conflict in 2017 reduced parts of the southern Philippine city to ruins.

At a public briefing on Thursday, Secretary Eduardo del Rosario of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development said he was assured by the agencies involved in the rehabilitation that the target completion date, December 2021, remains even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had a meeting with the agencies, including [Marawi City] Mayor Majul Gandamra. The full blast construction activity will start in July because the President already released the P3.6 billion budget last month,” del Rosario said.

“Mamo-mobilize, magagamit natin itong P3.6 billion, and we are confident that we will complete the Marawi rehabilitation project by December 2021,” del Rosario added.

Del Rosario also insisted that the lockdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic did not stop construction work in Marawi.

“We are on track. Mayroong mga laborers na hindi nakapasok, may inventory na ng materials na di nakapasok dahil sa lockdown, pero hindi po tumigil sa paggawa sa Marawi,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao in May 2017 after members of the ISIS-inspired Maute group occupied the city, resulting in a months-long armed conflict with government forces that left over a hundred people dead and at least P53 billion worth of damages.

Congress has extended the martial law in Mindanao three times -- by six months in July 2017, by one year in December 2017, and by another year in December 2018 -- based on Duterte's argument that rebellion is still ongoing in the region.

Duterte lifted the martial law in January 2020 or two months before the country was placed under state of public health emergency due to COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted quarantine measures prohibiting mass gathering and requiring social distancing to prevent transmission. --KBK, GMA News