MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 21 July) — Lack of documentation, affidavits and sworn statements beset most of the claims by the estimated 100,000 residents who lost their belongings, properties and buildings during the fighting that destroyed most of Marawi’s commercial district during the siege staged by ISIS-inspired militants six years ago.
Lawyer Norossana Alauya-Sani, head of the Marawi Compensation Board (MCB), said Sani said this was the case of around 50 percent of the 1,000 claimants who went to the compensation claims office in Barangay Marinaut West in Marawi.
But Sani added that “most were able to comply with the required documentation when they came back.”
She said they now average 200 to 300 applicants a day. Of these, she said they found two applications to be spurious.
One of the applicants whose documents were found lacking when she submitted them a week ago was 70-year old Jamela Sarip Asama.
The MCB legal unit ask Asama to produce the lacking documents if she wanted to be paid for her house made of concrete and wood.
She came back on Thursday and heaved a sigh of relief after her application was stamped as approved by the MCB legal unit.
“Shukran (Thanks). Now I will wait for the board to review my claim,” she said.
If approved by the board, Asama would receive P9,000 per square meter for her house that was destroyed during the siege.
Sani said she approved the papers of Asama after she was satisfied with all the documentation she submitted.
“Actually, we gave Asama a docket number the first time she came her so she would not undergo reprocessing. All she had to do was to cite her docket number and we checked the documents she was required to produce,” she said.
She added Asami’s claims would be reviewed by another group of lawyers and assessors as the second step before the board would decide whether to pay her or not.
MCB Chair lawyer Maisara Dandamun-Latiph said claimants have two ways to file their claims—either online on the MCB website or at the onsite receiving center in Barangay Marinaut West.
Latiph said over 11,000 claimants have applied online and more than 1,000 residents have visited the onsite receiving center.
Under Republic Act No. 116961, otherwise known as the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022, the government allotted P1 billion to pay Marawi residents who lost properties or had relatives killed as a result of the fighting. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)