Evacuees urge recognition of Maranao ancestral land ownership etc.

MASIDING NOOR YAHYA

Iligan City | February 6, 2018

A group of evacuees from the Marawi siege asked the government to recognize the ancestral land ownership of Maranaos and proposed to distribute the military reservation in Marawi and Lanao to rightful owners and actual occupants. 

The group also urged Congress to allocate enough budget for the recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi to include priority needs of the IDPs in the amount of at least PhP10-B.

Datu Meno D. Manabilang, leader of the Sowara Miyamagoyag (Voice of Evacuees) from the Marawi Siege said those are among many recommendations addressed to Task Force Bangon Marawi, the Congress and the President which are results of series of consultations of the IDPs

He said the recommendations are embodied in a 20-page paper prepared and to be submitted by Sowara o Miyamagoyag, a group numbering to over 12,000 IDPs.

It was the output of a series of assemblies and consultations of Marawi IDPs facilitated and or supported by foreign funded Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) including ECOWEB, Duyog Marawi, RIDO, Inc., among others.

Many of the recommendations stated in the paper, however, are reiterations of what the government has already been doing or implemented or has already in the program of activities lined up for implementation in the reconstruction of Marawi. 

It is learned that other organizations have also been doing similar consultations and meetings to reach what recommendations they can present to the government in regards to the reconstruction and rehabailitation of Marawi. (RSP)