PASAY CITY -- The Senate on Monday, August 15, 2022, approved a resolution reconstituting a special committee that will oversee the continuous rehabilitation of Marawi City that was ravaged by a five-month siege in 2017.

Senate Resolution No. 9, filed and sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, was adopted during the hybrid plenary session, paving the way for the reconstitution of the Special Committee on Marawi City Rehabilitation.

First constituted in the 17th Congress, the committee is tasked to provide full support, assistance, and cooperation to Task Force Bangon Marawi and was instrumental in the conduct and implementation of post-disaster recovery, rehabilitation, and normalization of the city.

The committee was reconstituted in the 18th Congress after the 17th Congress partially accomplished its purpose. According to reports as of June 5, 2022, the infrastructure rehabilitation projects in Marawi City are at 72 percent completion since the city’s liberation from the ISIS-inspired Maute group siege in 2017.

“It has been five years since the 5-month long siege of the Marawi City – from May 23 to October 23, 2017 – which displaced at least 49,785 families. Despite the time that has lapsed, the wounds are still fresh, and the memories of such destruction and chaos still haunt us today. Since then, pooled efforts from both the public and the private sector have been put together to rebuild the City of Marawi,” Villanueva said in his sponsorship speech.

The senator also cited accomplishments in the rehabilitation of Marawi City, referring to the July 2022 Accomplishment Report of the Task Force Bangon Marawi, and the enactment of Republic Act No. 11696 or the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022.

“The work continues. The siege was not a war of their own making, and it is the government’s obligation to restore the dignity of the people of Marawi and rebuild this city,” Villanueva added.

On May 23, 2017, a pro–Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group called the Maute group attacked the city. Then President Rodrigo Duterte initially declared martial law on the entire island of Mindanao, until December 31, 2017, but was later extended to the end of 2018 and then again to the end of 2019. The city was liberated from militant control on October 17 and battle operations officially ended on October 23. (Senate PRIB)