P90 billion needed to rebuild Marawi, says mayor

November 24, 2017

The Philippine government needs about P90 billion to rebuild war-torn Marawi City, the city mayor said on Friday.

In a press briefing in Malacanang, Marawi Mayor Majul Usman Gandamra said based on their consultation, his constituents still want to return in the main areas devastated by the five-month battle instead of relocating them to other places in the city.

"On my personal view and based from our consultation with my constituents, it's better that we will just rebuild and reconstruct the war-torn area and then we will expand, especially government centers," he said.

He said the government should consider cultural, religious, and social sensibilities of the people in Marawi. Residents in Marawi are mostly Muslims.

Asked of the estimated amount needed to reconstruct Marawi, Gandamra said, "Well, based on our estimate, in fact on the Master Plan --- the Consolidated Master Plan that we submitted several weeks ago, initially...we have an amount of P90 billion."

The estimate was higher than the P50 billion Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana initially made.

The mayor said their estimate was higher because they want to reconstruct a "better" city."But of course, we will make it better than it was before," he said.

Included in the estimate was the physical structures and the restoration of economic operations of Marawi.

"Because as a result of this siege, almost 100 percent of our economic operation was totally collapsed," he said.

Government troops and Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists fought in Marawi for five months until October. Celerina Monte/DMS