SIX soldiers have been charged for looting in Marawi City a week after combat operations ended in the war-torn city.
Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of Joint Task Group Ranao, said the suspects include an officer and five Army soldiers.
In an interview with radio dzBB, Brawner also said a Maute group straggler was killed in a firefight with government troops Tuesday morning.
“A straggler looked like he was trying to escape the main battle area but our troops spotted him and a firefight ensued and he was killed,” he said in Filipino.
Another straggler was killed by government forces the other day, he added.
Brawner said they deployed additional personnel to the main battle area to help in the clearing operations.
He added that the entire main battle area was surrounded, and that no stragglers could get out or get in.
The Armed Forces announced that combat operations ended Oct. 23, exactly five months after terrorists overran Marawi City.
Top terrorist leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute were killed Oct. 16.
Some 920 Maute terrorists were killed in five months of fighting, while 165 soldiers and police and 47 civilians died.
Residents who started returning to the city reported that their homes had been ransacked.
A House leader on Tuesday proposed that the Palace craft a “mini-Marshall Plan” for Marawi City amid estimates that rebuilding it would cost more than P90 billion.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte said a plan similar to the massive reconstruction effort initiated by the United States to aid Europe after World War II would supercharge growth and development not only in Marawi and the rest of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) but in the entire Mindanao as well.
“The original Marshall Plan was effective in propelling the growth of European economies because the nations who took part decided for themselves how to put the funding to best use. The same should be done in coming up with a mini-Marshall Plan for Marawi,” Villafuerte, vice chairman of the House committee on national defense, said.
“Extensive consultations should be made with the affected stakeholders by the economic managers under Task Force Bangon Marawi. Physical rehabilitation is only one aspect of the plan. Economic rehabilitation is an equally important component that would address one of the root causes of the conflict in Marawi and the ARMM, which is generational poverty,” Villafuerte added.
Villafuerte noted, for instance, that majority of the population in the ARMM rely on agriculture and fisheries as their means of livelihood.
“Given this fact, the modernization of agriculture should obviously be one of the priorities that this mini-Marshall Plan should take into account. Government intervention to boost production, reduce post-harvest costs, widen farmers’ access to markets and introduce them to the concept of agribusiness ventures are among the measures that the President’s economic managers can consider to aid in the economic recovery not only of Marawi but of the entire ARMM as well,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said the decisive actions taken by President Duterte in dealing with the Marawi crisis would further strengthen investor confidence in the Philippines.
He said that given the massive reconstruction requirement, the economic team must be able to cash-in on positive investor sentiment by launching a marketing blitz to entice the business community to support the planned issuance of Marawi bonds.
“This planned bond float is crucial to raising enough cash for the needed massive and long-term rehabilitation to put Marawi back on its feet,” Villafuerte said.
Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra, said the city would require an initial P92 billion to rebuild the city.