On April 13, Rodrigo Duterte signed into law RA 11696 or the “Marawi Siege Victimes Compensation Act of 2022.” The law provides for an agency to be formed to process the distribution of compensation or payment for damages to the victims of the regime’s bombardment which destroyed Marawi City in 2017. However, the law was unclear as to the amount that each victim will receive. Neither are there funds under the current national budget and payments will have to wait until 2023.

The Marawi Advocacy Accompanimanent (MAA), a group of Meranaw leaders and Moro organizations, acknowledged the enactment of RA 11696. But it said that compensation must be accompanied by guarantees of the evacuees’ basic needs and the implementation of their safe and dignified return to the city. The group criticized the turtle-paced rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi.

Task Force Bangon Marawi boasted that the city’s rehabilitation will be 95% complete in June or before Duterte leaves his post. In truth, majority of the residents are still prohibited to return to the city, despite compliance with required documents. Residents of Barangay Padian were also banned from returning, despite having land titles, because of the planned reclamation inLake Lanao. The Bangsamoro Transition Authority’s excuse is that “the titles have no value because this is now owned by the government.”

May 23 marks the sixth year when the Duterte regime attacked and flattened Marawi City.