Manila: The Philippines will be relying on technical advice and expertise of the World Bank for the reconstruction of Marawi City, officials said on Tuesday.
As the four-month-long fighting in the Central Mindanao city is expected to wind down dramatically with the elimination of key leaders — Omar Maute and Isnilon Hapilon — of the Daesh-inspired uprising led by the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, officials are setting their sights on going full blast in the rebuilding of devastated areas of Marawi City.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who met with World Bank officials in Washington, DC, said reconstruction and rehabilitation is a huge task that the Philippines would have difficulty undertaking on its own. He said the country’s experience rebuilding a city torn by conflict is limited and that there are underlying matters that need to be addressed other than simply putting back together destroyed structures.
“The rehabilitation of Marawi is a complicated situation,” Dominguez said. For one, he added, there is the matter involving land titling for residents who had lost their homes. Many of those in Marawi whose houses were destroyed are informal settlers who live in multi-storey structures.
Dominguez said the residents of Marawi must feel that they have a stake in the rebuilding of their city by tapping on local resource as well. He said one idea being entertained is floating bonds that would finance the reconstruction efforts.
“I would like to introduce the concept that the rest of the country is involved in Marawi, that we have to contribute ourselves to the reconstruction and we are going with the bond issue,” he said.
For her part, World Bank chief executive officer Kristalina Georgieva affirms the institution’s commitment to work with the Philippine government in helping Marawi City rise from devastation,
She said that aside from rehabilitation and reconstruction, the World Bank is looking at the long term and is stepping up support for peace-building efforts in Mindanao.
Georgieva said tapping domestic resources for Marawi’s reconstruction, was “the right thing to do” as she underscored the importance of “inclusive development” as a key aspect of the rehabilitation strategy for the city.
“We can only express all of our sympathy for what has been going on in Marawi,” said Georgieva during the meeting held at the World Bank Office in Washington.
“As an institution that has committed to peaceful development and dealing with conflict situations, we would be honoured in helping in terms of rebuilding and engaging in any possible way what we can do in this situation.”
Aside from Dominguez, Philippine officials who were present at the meeting in Washington were Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Ernesto Pernia of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
