DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 February) – Marawi residents displaced by the siege in 2017 will finally receive tax-free monetary compensation for loss of properties and loss of lives half a decade ago but it will not be immediate as funding for such purpose has yet to be allocated in the national budget for 2023.
The Senate unanimously passed on third reading on Monday Senate Bill 2420 or The Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022, providing compensation to three kinds of claimants: those whose properties were destroyed and those who lost their loved ones during the five-month war between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group in 2017; and those whose properties were demolished during the implementation of the Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Program (MRRRP).
To be compensated are those who suffered total or partial destruction of their residential property; cultural property and facilities such as mosques, madaris, schools and colleges, hospitals and other health facilities; commercial property or those used exclusively for commercial or business purposes; and other properties such as “house appliances, jewelries, machineries, rice mills, and other equipment of value” in 32 of Marawi City’s 96 barangays that were devastated by the war.
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The 32 barangays refer to the 24 barangays in the 250-hectare former main battle area or ‘Ground Zero’ during the five-month war, now referred to as Most Affected Area (MAA), and eight barangays that also suffered damages, or “Other Affected Areas” (OAA).
A worker heads to the road reconstruction site in Marawi City on Saturday, October 17, 2020. Majority of the 27,000 families in the 250-hectare, 24-barangay “Ground Zero” have yet to return home. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
Claimants have up to one year from the organization of the nine-member independent and quasi-judicial Marawi Compensation Board (MCB) to file their claims. The Board has five years from the effectivity of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) to do its work.
SB 2420 provides that within one year after the MCB has been duly organized, “any person who is a lawful owner of a residential, cultural, commercial structures, and other properties located in the MAA or OAA and destroyed or damaged either totally or partially on the occasion of the Marawi siege” and the “heirs of those who died and legally presumed dead” may file a claim with the Board for compensation.
It also provides that “all properties demolished” as part of the implementation of the MRRRP shall be compensated for,” including those on the right of way under RA 10752 which will be amended to include the “MRRRP, debris management programs, and programs that require the demolition of private property for the search and recovery of unexploded ordnance (UXO)” as among “national government projects” where road right of way acquisition is being facilitated for prompt payment of just compensation.
SB 2420 was passed on third reading on Monday, five days after its passage on second reading. The bill will now be referred to the House of Representatives for concurrence. The House, which passed its compensation bill — HB 9925 — on third reading on September 6, 2021, may decide to adopt the Senate version and if it does, the bill will be enrolled and sent to the President for signing into law. If not, a bicameral conference committee will be convened to resolve the differences.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa, chair of the Senate’s Special Committee on Marawi City Rehabilitation told MindaNews on Tuesday that “there will be no bicam anymore since the House of Representatives adopted the Senate version of the bill. So each House can proceed with ratification which is the final legislative action before it can be transmitted to the President for signing into law.” He said the House adopted the Senate version on the same day the Senate passed it on third reading.
Congress is on break from February 5 to May 22 and will resume sessions after the elections – on May 23 – which, coincidentally, is exactly five years to Day 1 of the Marawi Siege.
Funding for 2023
During the interpellation before the Senate passed SB 2420 on second reading on January 26, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon clarified with Senator Sonny Angara, Finance Committee chair and sponsor of SB 2420, on the funding requirement.
Drilon noted that SB 2420 is “principally a budgetary bill… the bottom line is we must appropriate funds. I assume funds will be included in the GAA (General Appropriations Act) of 2023? Is that a correct assessment, conclusion?” he asked.
“That’s correct,” Angara replied. “There is no specific appropriation for the compensation board but there is an item for Marawi compensation under the disaster fund if I am not mistaken, that has been there since a few years ago,” he said.
He added that funding for the proposed law will be “for 2023 of course. We will work on that going forward.”
Drilon said he wanted this issue clarified “so that the public is not misled into believing there is. already an appropriation in this measure. That is not the case.”
Angara replied that like other legislation, “it is not self-contained in that sense. It is always referring to the GAA.”
“So this serves as the legal basis for the appropriations in the GAA for 2023 and the subsequent years,” Drilon added.
How much can claimants receive?
In determining monetary compensation, HB 9925 provides that the compensation for claims shall be patterned after Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 which granted compensation for victims of human rights violations under the Marcos dictatorship.
HB 9925 authorizes the Commission on Human Rights en banc to determine the point allocation for those whose properties were destroyed as a result of armed conflict. HB 9925 provides that the monetary award for claimants “shall be equivalent and shall not exceed the monetary amount granted to the human rights victim recognized by RA 10368” which ranged from 176,000 pesos to 1.76 million pesos.
SB 2420 on the other hand provides that the MCB “shall determine the monetary compensation and award to the lawful owner(s), whichever is the lower amount of either the fair market value of the residential, cultural, commercial structures, or other real properties or the value of its total area per story equivalent to an amount to be determined in the implementing rules and regulations…”
A portion of Marawi City’s Ground Zero with Lake Lanao in the background. MindaNews file photo. May 2018 by H. MARCOS C. MORDENO
In case of claims for loss or destruction of personal properties, the claimant “shall present competent evidence of the loss or destruction, ownership, as well as the fair market value of the personal properties.”
Awarding of compensation will be made “within 30 days after the Board has approved with finality each eligible claim pending before it and after due publication of such legitimate claim.”
A separate set of provisions has been made for owners of private properties demolished because of the MRRRP implementation. For example, programs that required the demolition of private property for the search and recovery of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) “shall be treated as national government projects and shall be compensated in accordance to Republic Act No. 10752 or the ‘Right of Way Act.’”
SB 2420 provides that the implementing agency “shall offer to the property owner concerned, as compensation price, the sum of the current market value of the land and the replacement cost of structures and improvements therein..”
In consonance with the compensation provisions of RA 10752, structure owners who built on land not belonging to them or on land being claimed by other parties, “shall also be compensated for the damage sustained as a result of the siege, provided that unresolved disputes as to the true owners of land shall not affect the entitlement to compensation of owners of structures damaged or demolished during the siege and as a result of post-siege actions of the government.”
Fund source
SB 2420 proposes that the amount for the initial implementation of the law “shall be charged against the current year’s appropriations of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund for the MRRRP (Marawi Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program)” and that the amount needed thereafter “shall be included in the annual GAA.”
Before the two senate bills on Marawi compensation were consolidated into SB 2420, the bill filed by Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and the Senate’s Special Commtitee on Marawi rehabilitation headed by Senator Ronald dela Rosa – SB 1395 — initially proposed 30 billion pesos as the “principal source of funds for the implementation of this Act, which shall be included in the Annual General Appropriations Act for the next three years in three equal amounts.”
But SB 2420 adopted the provision on appropriations under Senator Risa Hontiveros’ SB 2394, which is the same as HB 9925’s, where the amount necessary for the initial implementation of the law shall be charged against the current year’s appropriations of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund” for the MRRRP and that thereafter, “such amount as may be necessary for the implementation of this Act shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.”
Task Force Bangon Chief Eduardo del Rosario (center) and Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra view the reconstruction map with engineers along Quezon Avenue in Marawi City on Saturday, October 17, 2020, three years after President Rodrigo Duterte declared the city “liberated from the terrorist influence.” MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
It is not clear what Angara meant when he said that while there is no specific appropriation as yet, “there is an item for Marawi compensation under the disaster fund if I am not mistaken, that has been there since a few years ago.”
A check with the Department of Budget and Management showed that the NDRRMC was allocated 20 billion pesos for 2022, out of which one billion pesos is for the MRRRP, specifically to be used “for recovery, rehabilitation, reconstruction, aid and relief projects as identified by the TFBM (Task Force Bangon Marawi) in Marawi City and other affected areas in connection with the occurrence of armed conflicts, particularly the Marawi Siege.”
TFBM chair and Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo del Rosario told MindaNews on January 28 that the one-billion-peso budget is “earmarked for the completion of various projects.”
Operating budget
SB 2420 provides that the operating budget of the Marawi Compensation Board “shall be funded from the current year’s appropriation of the Contingent Fund” provided that it shall not exceed 50 million pesos a year.
Payment for claims will have to await the budget allocation for 2023 but with an operating budget sourced from the Contingent Fund, implementation of the law, once signed, can begin this year with the appointment by the President of the nine-member Board.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel during the second reading said the internally displaced persons (IDPs or ‘bakwits’) from Marawi have been wanting to return home. and have repeatedly appealed to them for compensation which he referred to as “a very small amount, it’s not a large amount” … “to give social justice as well to those who were victims of terrorism.”
Drieza Lininding, convenor of the Moro Consensus Group said the funding may come only in 2023 but once passed into law, this would be the legal basis for appropriating funds under the GAA.
He said updating of the damage assessment could be done this year so that Congress would know how much would be appropriated for 2023.
In a statement, the Marawi Reconstruction Conflict Watch said that with the passage on third reading, “we are one step closer to enacting the law that will help Marawi IDPs rebuild their lives.”
“This legislation was passed unanimously by both Houses in recognition of the moral and legal obligation of the state in this long process of rehabilitation and recovery of Marawi City and its people,” it said.
It said the provision of just compensation for victims of the Marawi Siege “will go a long way in helping them attain justice.”
Compensation for loss of lives
On January 26, Angara accepted several substantial amendments from Hontiveros, including compensation for loss of lives and ensuring two seats in the compensation for civil society representatives, one of whom, she specified, must be a Shariah lawyer or a Muslim traditional leader.
Hontiveros proposed and Angara accepted, the insertion of a paragraph that the heirs of those who died and legally presumed dead are also entitled to compensation. HB 9925 and SB 2420 did not have this provision until Angara accepted the amendment that was actually in Hontiveros’ SB 2394.
Another proposed amendment from Hontiveros that Angara accepted is the insertion of a paragraph that the Bangsamoro government and the national government “shall ensure the protection of the rights of the victims of the siege and undertake programs for their rehabilitation and development,” that they, along with the local government units where the IDPs are located, and national government agencies concerned where the IDPs are located, shall ensure continued access to livelihood assistance, skills and training programs, loan assistance and other related activities to assist the recovery of lost income streams of businesses affected by the Marawi siege.”
Tha grave markers at the Maqbara Cemetery, as of April 2019. MindaNews file photo by BOBBY TIMONERA
Another approved amendment from Hontiveros was a provision that the Office of Civil Defense in coordination with the TFBM shall update the Post Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA) report within three months after the law takes effect, that in updating the report, the agencies “should also consider additional information from the post siege social cartography activities of the DENR and information on the damages and losses incurred from areas that have become accessible only after the mitigation of security threats,” that the updated PCNA report shall be used in assessing replacement cost for residential and commercial structures, programming housing sector interventions, commensurate to the updated needs and in designating livelihood asset restoration and assistance projects roughly proportionate to the losses.”
Other amendments to Senate Bill 2420 were introduced by TFBM on the road right of way, that in consonance with the compensation provisions of RA 10752, structure owners in Marawi who built on lands not belonging to them or on land being claimed by other parties, “should also be compensated for the damage sustained as a result of the siege provided that unresolved disputes as the true owners of the land shall not affect the entitlement of compensation to owners of structures damaged or demolished during the siege or as a result of post-siege actions of the government.”
Compensation for land and/or damaged or demolished structures under the Marawi Compensation law and under RA 10752 “shall not disqualify persons from participating in the government’s socialized housing programs” but it added that “all government programs for which corresponding benefits had been granted to the claimants shall be deducted from the total amount of compensation to be awarded under this act.”
Rebuilding lives
After Senate President Vicente Sotto III banged the gavel to announce the passage on third reading of SB 2420, Angara said: “I celebrate with our Meranaw brothers. Kaunti na lang at pirmado na ni President Duterte.”
Dela Rosa said “we will not stop until Marawi is restored to its full glory,” adding that Meranaws can now “rebuild, restart and stand again after the devastation of the terrorist attack.”
Senator Richard Gordon said he is “very happy” that the bill was finally passed.
“Our people there have been waiting for so long for rehabilitation and certainly it is so hard to be disheveled or for of that matter unhinged because of a war that tore down lives, tore down homes, tore down savings etc.… Hopefully, this is the start of a … resolute smooth resurrection of our brothers Meranaw.”
Hontiveros thanked her colleagues and expressed “deep gratitude” to Angara “for acknowledging the concept of maratabat,” for the Meranaws’ “self-worth, dignity, sometimes even of pride” and “for ensuring out bill would reflect that very important principle.”
Senate Majority Leader Zubiri also thanked Angara for “helping us push this measure.”
He said the difference between the compensation bill and what the TFBM is doing in terms of rehabilitation is that the latter is “for the public infrastructure — build roads, bridges destroyed, mosques, public schools, markets, but the homes that were destroyed really need this compensation not only for the homes destroyed but the lives lost. Malaking bagay ito.”
“For Marawi and Lanao del sur, Alhamdullilah, praise be to God. Our wish, your wish to pass this has finally come and we commit that we get this approved by the house and ratified immediately so that finally this will be enrolled” and signed into law, Zubiri said. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)