Victims of the five-month long armed conflict in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur on Wednesday are calling for the resignation of officials of the National Housing Authority and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council for alleged incompetence to implement a full rehabilitation of the war-torn city.
At the Pandesal Forum in Kamuning Bakery, Quezon City, Hadji Amin Titing Atar, spokesperson of Datu Meno Manabilang, hit NHA general manager Marcelino Escalada Jr., along with Victor Balba of the special bids and awards committee, and Task Force Bangon Marawi chairperson and HUDCC head Eduardo del Rosario over the awarding of the demolition and debris management project of sectors 2 and 9 in the most affected areas in Marawi.
Manabilang, Sowara O Miyamagoyag (Voice of Marawi Internally Displaced Persons) earlier filed a complaint against Escalada, Balba, Del Rosario and private contractors under the Marawi Progress and Development Consortium composed of Jimmy Francis Hinch of the CJI General Services Inc., along with Barry Jim Hinch, Julius Joseph Beredo, Noel Mendoza and Harry Cuevas.
Also included as respondent was Edgardo Sagum, Eddmari Construction and Trading president.
He said that he is representing over 200,000 internally displaced persons as surviving war victims.
“We are still helpless and crying to demand a new beginning as we still hold on to the promise of the government agencies in-charge of demolition and debris management project. We may be survivors but we are not even close to being saved,” Manabilang said in a statement.
He questioned why the task force chose MPDC to rehabilitate Marawi City despite its previous disqualification.
NHA accepted a resubmitted bid from former MPDC members CJI General Services Inc., Mamsar Construction and Industrial Corp, and Green Asia Construction and Development as a new joint venture dated Dec. 20, 2018, he said.