Reportedly six proposed master plans
for the reconstruction of the ravaged city of Marawi with cost estimates
ranging from P 30 - 80B, had been on the table for government to choose from, as
early as December 2017, or some two months
after the conclusion of the conflict.
Six months later, it seems the government has
yet to make a choice or has to come up with another plan. Meanwhile, the 350000
displaced residents are accommodated in temporary shelters and evacuation
centers exposed to the elements and at the mercy of the vagaries of the
weather. Those who were not accommodated by the quick-response projects had no
other option but to seek refuge in the kindness of relatives in neighboring
communities while waiting for their dwellings in ground zero and periphery to be liveable
again.
In any case, the exceeded carrying capacity of these temporary measures
may spawn, if not yet already, a lot of troubles along sanitation, health, and
relationship. The elderly and the infirm, the nursing mothers and their young
will be the first to buckle down from poor sanitation and hygiene, inadequate
food supplies, water and medicines.
In fairness though, the rebuilding
of the city cannot take off until the rubbles are cleared and the hundreds of
unexploded bombs that were dropped from the air are recovered from their sink
holes. It’s still a long wait, but in
situations like this, safety is the best policy.
How to avoid what happened in
Marawi, the decision and strategies that caused it, is something the government
should seriously review in the meantime that the clearing and bomb retrieval is
still in progress. Congress, both the Senate and the House, is duty-bound to
conduct an investigation on the matter. It ought to eschew politics and leave
no stone unturned in finding why the fighting to hunt and terminate 100- 500
terrorists (the figure kept on changing during the battle) turned into a war effort
that took 153 days to complete and had effectively and outrageously destroyed an
entire city.
There are other cities and urban centers in Mindanao that are vulnerable to terrorist incursions
and propaganda efforts. The Marawi tragedy should be avoided: it should not
repeat. The cost of the war in terms of
lives, human suffering and financial and material resources was staggering. If the
cost in lives and consequent suffering of the populace is put in the equation,
the decision in pursuing the war borders in insanity. It should not be allowed
to happen again.
It is, of course, imperative for the
government to preserve and promote peace. But any intervention along this must be thoroughly calculated and
put in the balance to determine the overall
cost, particularly in lives and human suffering. Here enters the thorough
assessment of the political and military
strategies to employ in pursuit of war objectives.
Without this exercise, a war on terror may become unnecessarily destructive
like hitting with a hammer a scorpion on
the head of a person: you crush the scorpion as well as the head of the person
you wish to protect from the deadly arachnid.
That is what happened to the Islamic City of Marawi.
The Maute-ISIS terrorists evidently lost the battles but might
have won the war in portraying the government as a giant terrorist in the eyes
of the Meranaw, especially in the young.
This should not be allowed to happen
once more.
Never again.
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