On December 14, church people and youth held a prayer-rally in solidarity with Marawi City’s displaced residents who have yet to return to their city. The call for the return of about 5,000 displaced families became urgent as they face the threat of eviction from their temporary shelters by the end of the year. The land where they were resettled after the AFP bombed the city in 2017 is under a contract between the government and private landowners which is set to expire. They demand justice and an investigation into the state’s response and the rehabilitation of their city.

“Seven years after the end of the siege, approximately 83,335 individuals still endure precarious living conditions,” a petition by the Reclaiming Marawi Movement (RMM), an organization of the displaced, stated. “Despite government pledges, only a fraction of the promised reconstruction has been completed, and Marawi’s Most Affected Area (MAA) remains largely inaccessible to residents.”

Meanwhile, the displaced continue to suffer from dire conditions in their temporary housing. Clean water supply, health services, and education are insufficient, and the threat of eviction is constant. Their economic and living conditions have worsened, especially during the pandemic.

While they demand just compensation for their destroyed properties, they assert that this should not be considered sufficient for all the suffering and hardship they have endured over the past seven years.

“Compensation cannot make up for what we have lost and destroyed as displaced people,” according to the RMM. “Therefore, we demand recognition and accountability alongside compensation for the human rights violations that occurred during the attack and the rehabilitation process.”

They are calling for the assurance of their safe and dignified return or “kambalingan” to Marawi City.

Meanwhile, city residents condemned the Marcos regime’s decision to establish a new office for the management of city’s rehabilitation, instead of addressing their calls for a swift and fair distribution of rehabilitation funds.

On November 28, Ferdinand Marcos Jr issued an executive order (EO 78) creating the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Marawi Rehabilitation and Development, ostensibly for the “rehabilitation, development, and restoration of peace in Marawi” and other areas the AFP destroyed in 2017. The new office will be headed by Nasser Pangandaman Sr, Presidential Adviser for Marawi Rehabilitation, and will be under Marcos’ close friend Antonio Lagdameo Jr.

“Please, don’t make Marawi rehab into another milking cow. Duterte’s people have already profited, it seems BBM’s (people) turn now at the expense of our miseries!” Moro Consensus Group’s Drieza Lininding stated. He said that the regime should have addressed the Marawi Compensation Board’s multiple shortcomings instead of establishing a new office that will siphon additional funds.

Almost all the roads and other infrastructure constructed are deteriorating but the displaced cannot return to or benefit from it due to the MCB’s inutility, he said. What the residents need is additional funds for rehabilitation, not additional bureaucracy.