MANILA — The Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines on Monday rallied support for the Duterte administration’s plan to rebuild and rehabilitate the strife-torn Marawi City.
During the launching of the new pro-administration alliance, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Karen Jimeno stressed the need to cast aside differences and work toward a “greater cause” of rehabilitating Marawi.
“As a nation, we need to realize that the stability and peace in Mindanao is the stability and peace of the entire country,” Jimeno said.
“We need to build a better Marawi. We need to build a better Philippines. Let us all be partners of change,” Jimeno added.
President Duterte last week announced Marawi’s liberation after the deaths of top terrorist leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute.
Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio echoed Jimeno’s sentiments, noting that personal politics must be set aside to fight the common enemy that is terrorism.
“Let us start making global terrorism insignificant by quickly rebuilding Marawi,” Duterte-Carpio said.
Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including more than 800 enemies, 47 civilians, and 163 government troops since the rebellion started in May.
The national government estimated to spend PHP50 billion to rehabilitate the war-torn city.
The fighting between government troops and Maute terrorists, which lasted for almost five months, started last May 23 when the former attempted to arrest Hapilon, who was declared the emir of ISIS in Southeast Asia.
Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines is an umbrella organization of all groups who supported Rodrigo Duterte when he ran for President and pledged to be unrelenting even after he was installed as the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines. (PNA)
