Temporary shelters and evacuation centers will be erected for the evacuees as soon as they can return to Marawi City after the city is cleared of Maute terrorists, the Interior department said Saturday.
DILG Officer-in-Charge Catalino Cuy said that a huge number of evacuees staying in Iligan City will find out that they are homeless once they go back to Marawi City at the end of the armed conflict.
“We really hope that we can start the rehabilitation efforts very soon so that Marawi residents will be able to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, stand back on their toes again, and rebuild their lives,” Cuy said.
Cuy said that the national government is looking into the process of identifying internally displaced persons (IDPs) who actually lost their homes due to the ongoing siege to be the recipients of the temporary shelters and evacuation centers.
“Temporary shelters will be available doon sa mga nasiraan ng bahay talaga [for those with damaged houses],” he said.
He added that there had been reports that the number of evacuees in Iligan City swelled to a massive extent so it is imperative to prioritize the recipients of the temporary shelters and evacuation centers.
Local officials raised the concern on the management of the dead and the missing casualties and other concerns that beset the city amid the armed conflict.
Despite the ongoing conflict, Cuy cited the downward trend of criminality in the entire Northern Mindanao area.
He said that if this positive development will continue, it would be beneficial to the tourism industry in the region, which is one of the adversely affected sectors in the Mindanao crisis.
PNP and AFP forces in the entire Mindanao island have also been beefed up as part of the enhanced security measures.
Meanwhile, the cramped condition in evacuation centers gave rise to a number of diseases, including diarrhea.
A television report said eight children, who were among the thousands of people displaced by the conflict, have already died from diarrhea.
Aside from diseases, the displaced residents, who number 2,500, are also suffering from trauma due to the ongoing conflict.
On Saturday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said that as of 12 noon, a total of 2,666 families or 11,774 displaced city residents are staying in 40 evacuation centers.
It also reported that the number of home-based internally-displaced families was already at 31,673 or 148,824 persons.
The number of deaths of civilians at evacuation centers is not included in the death toll being released by the military.
