President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is slated to visit Marawi City, Lanao del Sur today to turn-over transitional shelters at Barangay Sagonsongan to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the 24 barangays hardest hit by the clashes between the Maute terror group and government troops starting May 23 to Oct. 16 this year.
Some 500 units of 22-square meter houses have been constructed on a 14-hectare land to serve as temporary shelters for families affected by the Marawi siege.
Dubbed “Biyaya ng Pagbabago Temporary Shelter,” this housing project for the IDPs is jointly implemented by the Office of the President, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), city government of Marawi, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the National Housing Authority (NHA).
In an interview with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Farmida A. Macabando, barangay Mipaga chair and Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) president said the beneficiaries of the transitional shelters are the poor residents of the 24 barangays at ground zero.
These beneficiaries, Macabando said, were validated by the technical working group (TWG) tasked with identifying the beneficiaries of the transitional shelters.
“Residents of the same barangay shall also stay in one area at said transitional shelter site to give them the feel that they are living in their own barangay,” the lady barangay chair explained.
It could be recalled that Housing Secretary Educardo del Rosario had disclosed that some 1,175 houses would be constructed for the IDPs, and half of these would be completed by mid December.
President Duterte is coming here today to award these transitional shelters to qualified beneficiaries, two months after he declared Marawi liberated from terrorist influence.
Twenty-four of the 96 barangays turned ground zero when the Islamic State (ISIS)-linked Maute terror group stormed the city seven months ago. (FPG/PIA)