Maranaos grateful to JICA for supporting Marawi rehab efforts

LANAO DEL SUR - Stakeholders are grateful to Japan for committing 2 billion Yen for the rehabilitation of the conflict-torn Marawi City.Japan committed the amount, about US$18 million, in a cooperation agreement signed May 15 by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Yoshio Wada, representative to the Philippines of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, most known as JICA.JICA is a major benefactor of the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and has been helping bankroll high-ticket socio-economic and infrastructure projects in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao since the late 1990s.Lanao del Sur Gov. Soraya Bedjoria Alonto-Adiong said Friday her administration is thankful to Japan for helping rebuild Marawi City from the devastation wrought by last year’s five month siege by combined Maute and Abu Sayyaf militants.Both terror groups are operating in the fashion of the Islamic State. This support from JICA is a very big boost to our efforts of making Marawi City bounce back, rise again from the very bad effect of conflict, Alonto-Adiong said.Marawi City is the capital of Lanao del Sur, a component province of ARMM.In separate text messages, the mayor of Marawi City, Majul Gandamra, and ARMM’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, said they are grateful to JICA for reaching out.The May 23 to October 16, 2017 hostilities in Marawi City dislocated more than 200,000 residents, resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand, including soldiers and police personnel, and left dozens of historic, centuries-old enclaves there in ruins.In a press communiqué, Dominguez said Malacanang has identified 902 priority projects focused on rehabilitating Marawi City, estimated to costno less than P55 billion.About half of the fiscal requirement shall be drawn from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Project Fund, he said.Dominguez said funds for other projects under the Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan crafted in April shall come from various government agencies, from ARMM, from the city government of Marawi and cooperating non-government organizations.Besides the agreement that Dominguez and Wada signed, Japan also assured to provide 1.1 billion Yen, about US $9.8 million, for core shelters and livelihood trainings for internally-displaced Marawi City residents through the United Nations Human Settlement Programme.The Japanese government also pledged US$2 million more for relief operations in Marawi City of the UN entities World Food Programme and the International Children’s Fund. The Muslim and non-Muslim residents of Marawi City and all towns in Lanao del Sur appreciate deeply the noble humanitarian gestures of the Japanese government and its people, Alonto-Adiong said.