Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18) — President Rodrigo Duterte declared Marawi’s liberation on Tuesday, but an Islamic Studies expert says the government faces the next tough challenge of sourcing funds for the massive rehabilitation work in the city.
While he joins the celebration over Marawi’s liberation from Maute forces, University of the Philippines Institute of Islamic Studies Prof. Julkipli Wadi is asking: Where will the city get its rehabilitation funds?
President Duterte’s announcement of the Marawi victory was met by cheers on Tuesday. It marked the beginning of rehabilitation of the war-torn city, parts of which have been rendered nearly unrecognizable by months of airstrikes and firefight between government troops and terrorists.
But amid the revelry, Wadi also expresses concern the government will need billions to restore the city to its old state– a project that will be no easy task.
“This is my concern, where will the government get this big sum of money?” he told CNN Philippines’ News Night Tuesday evening.
The government estimates it will take some P100 billion to rebuild Marawi. Meanwhile, the consolidated Marawi Rehabilitation Plan drafted by local officials has an initial tag price of P70 billion.
READ: Marawi’s liberation closer after the deaths of Hapilon, Omar Maute
In September, the government initially pledged P50 billion to rebuild the city, but agreed Marawi would need much more.
Wadi says the international community has also offered to donate funds for the city’s rehabilitation, but estimates these pledges will only reach about P2.5 billion.
“It’s a very meager amount to the total amount. It’s very small,” he said.
Wadi claims finding sources of funds for Marawi is made even more difficult by the ongoing process towards another priority Mindanao project– the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
The BBL aims to establish a new Bangsamoro region to replace the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. It was carried over from talks between the previous government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Wadi estimates the BBL will need some P180 billion in funds, if the MILF proposes an allotment of 6 percent of the P3 trillion national budget.
“My question is where will the government get this big amount of money given that both are actually priorities- the BBL and rehab of Marawi,” he said. “You cannot just rehabilitate without addressing the BBL or say federalism.”
If the government decides to prioritize all three, Wadi says it will have a full plate ahead.
“If you combine these all, can you imagine how gargantuan the amount that the country needs to rehabilitate Marawi, to transform the unitary setup into a federal system– or if the BBL is still a necessity, then the need to pass the BBL,” he said.
Urban planner: It may take 50 years to rebuild Marawi
Urban planner and renowned architect Jun Palafox, Jr. who has visited Marawi, has likewise admitted the difficulty of restoring the city.
He said based on what he’s witnessed, it may take up to 50 years to rebuild Marawi fully.
“Rebuilding the city, it may take about 50 years from what I saw. It’s really so damaged,” Palafox told CNN Philippines’ Newsroom.
However Palafox, who has volunteered to draft proposals for Marawi’s rehabilitation, speaks of plans to restore Marawi similar to how the Japanese rebuilt ground zero in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“My inspiration is Hiroshima, Japan. They maintain ground zero so many tourists every year and they built a modern city around it,” he said.
While Palafox has not been officially appointed by the government to join restoration and rehabilitation efforts, he nevertheless revealed a vision plan to utilize the Lanao Lake waterfront as a tourist spot.
Palafox said elected leaders have expressed approval of the plans but these will be subject to the approval of religious, social, and political leaders such as sultans and imams.
“It can be a model for the world- how to rebuild a new city from the ashes of Marawi,” he said
Newer, better Marawi in the making?
Beyond budget woes, Wadi also says there may be new beginnings ahead for Maranaos.
He said the rehabilitation of Marawi can be a chance to rebuild the city free of the disorder and chaos it may have had in the past.
“Beyond nostalgia, we’re looking at the original character of Marawi city and we really want to become, in a sense, pragmatic about it. Then you have to embrace modernity and take the war as a cleansing process so a totally new Marawi can rise from the ashes,” he said.
Wadi is proposing that President Duterte enforce a socialized form of housing in Marawi to ease the blow for displaced residents.
He said with powers from his declaration of martial law in Mindanao, the President will be in a position to direct rehabilitation and the development of the city.
“[Duterte can influence] the datus and the sultan not anymore to cling to their old ways, but be in a sense gracious and charitable to the ordinary Maranaos to effect a kind of socialized land ownership or a kind of a housing so that everyone will be able to have a share,” he said.
Wadi said if the government can manage to build a newer, more modern Marawi, they can at least bring some comfort to victims uprooted by the devastating war.
“If that will be the end game of the Digong administration in Marawi, then it would make sense. It would convince the Maranaos that at least there’s something new– a new order, a new system, a breakup of the old,” he said.
CNN Philippines’ David Santos contributed to this report.
