Second military camp in Marawi not needed: Moro groups

April 26, 2018

Two Moro groups repeated their opposition to the government's plan to build  a second military camp in Marawi City.

Samira Gutoc-Tomawis of Ranao Rescue Team and former member of the Bangsamoro Transition Committee said another military camp is not needed as Camp Ranao, headquarters of the Army's 103rd Infantry Brigade.

“Is there a policy that there should be two camps in one city?” she said in an ambush interview during a forum by the Center For Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) Thursday in Quezon City.

The government is planning to build the camp at a 10-hectare lot in Barangay Kapantaran at an estimated cost of P400 million.

Major General Restituto Padilla, deputy chief of staff for plans and policy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said another military camp can prevent another attack in the city similar to the one in May 2017.

“There will be forces that will be able to react in the quickest possible time. Now, having no presence there will aggravate the problem,” Padilla told reporters in an interview.

Tomawis said thousands of Marawi residents are still displaced following the five-month war between state security forces and fighters of the Maute terror group in 2017.

“There are still no plans for our property and now the soldiers are the first priority,” she said.

Zahria Muti-Mapandi of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Al-Muajdilah Development Foundation Inc., said while she is not totally opposed to another military camp, it should not occupy more than 10 hectares.

She said there are people living within the 10-hectare area before the war broke out on May 23, 2017.

“There is panic among the people living in that area,” said Mapandi. DMS