MANILA (Updated) -- President Rodrigo Duterte tapped housing czar Eduardo Del Rosario as head of the Task Force Bangon Marawi, the body in charge of the recovery, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of Marawi City.
Duterte issued Order (AO) 9 changing the composition of the task force, which was previously headed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
Lorenza and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar join Del Rosario, concurrent head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, as deputy chairs of the inter-agency task force.
Duterte also ordered that the Task Force Bangon Marawi subcommittee on housing would now be headed by Del Rosario while the subcommittee on security, peace, and order would be co-headed by Lorenzana and Villar.
AO 9, which was signed by the President and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on October 27, amends AO 3 that was signed on June 28.
The task force was tasked to implement a comprehensive and integrated rehabilitation program for the strife-torn Marawi City.
AO 9 was issued weeks after Duterte announced the liberation of the besieged city from the hands of Islamic State-backed Maute terrorists.
Maute fighters, along with other foreign extremists, laid siege to Marawi City on May 23 with a goal to establish caliphate for IS group in the Southeast Asia.
Nearly five months after they stormed the southern city, the security troops killed terror leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute in an encounter on October 16.
On October 17, Duterte said Marawi has officially been liberated, which signaled the start of reconstruction phase.
Duterte stressed the need to create an inter-agency task force now that the long battle that devastated buildings and homes in the beleaguered city had ended.
"There is a need to re-organize Task Force Bangon Marawi, in order to reflect the government's current priority to rebuild and develop the settlement areas affected by the armed conflict," the President said. (SunStar Philippines)