ONE year hence, Marawi City remains in rubbles, thousands of families remain displaced.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said 230,000 persons remain displaced.
Government estimates that 65,000 will not be able to return to the poblacion in the next two to three years while the transitional site in Sagonsongan, Marawi City, can only accommodate 6,000 of them. Government data further reveals that as of 3 May 2018, 25,615 families were confirmed to have returned to 35 barangays in Marawi in five clusters with one remaining cluster still undergoing verification.
While there are rehabilitation efforts on the ground, it is not enough. The devastation is too big, it needs the sustained help of the private sector and individuals.
“Efforts to rehabilitate Marawi and assist its people must be stepped up to reduce the suffering of thousands of those who were displaced over the past year. The efforts are there, but these must match the growing needs of those who face prolonged displacement and are close to despair,” said Pascal Porchet, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the Philippines.
The despair is what can destroy, and the only way to address despair is to continuously reach out and help. Complement that with real pictures on the ground for the people outside Marawi to fully assess the sufferings. Real pictures meaning nothing that is spinned for or against. Just the facts.
According to the update from the World Food Programme, the Government's Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Recovery and Rehabilitation Programme provides a framework of proposed programmes, projects, and activities (PPAs) to be funded by the Government for the development of the city. A total of 902 PPAs were proposed under the framework are directed toward local governance and peacebuilding, housing and settlement, livelihood and business development, physical infrastructures, social services, and land resource management.
Let the sufferings of the people in Marawi be a collective responsibility for us to alleviate, and let us not fall into the trap of the propagandists to create enemies and dissent.
Among the groups still on the ground aside from the ICRC and WFP are the Save the Children, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, among several others. Anyone interested to help out can coordinate with these groups.