DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 August) – The Marawi Compensation Board (MCB) had earlier asked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for a P7-billion peso budget for 2024 for compensation and reparation to victims of the 2017 Marawi Siege, but the DBM’s National Expenditure Program (NEP) proposed an allocation of only P1-B.
The NEP is the national government’s spending plan for the next fiscal year and is submitted to Congress which deliberates on the proposed allocations and approves the 2024 budget.
According to the NEP, the allocation for Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Program is P1,111,954 of which one billion pesos is appropriated for compensation and reparation.
MCB chair Maisara Dandamun-Latiph told MindaNews on Sunday that they asked the DBM for P7-billion pesos for 2024 “as payment of compensation for eligible claimants who shall be given final award by MCB after adjudication of their claims.”
The P7-B is “purely for payment of compensation” and does not include operational expenses, she said.
Latiph said that in June 2023, the DBM wrote MCB that a billion pesos will be appropriated for compensation of totally or partially destroyed residential, cultural, commercial structures, and other properties in Marawi’s Main Affected Areas (MAA) or Other Affected Areas (OAA) or to owners of private properties demolished during the period of rehabilitation in accordance with Republic Act 11696 or the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022.
MAA refers to the 250-hectare, 24-barangay ‘Ground Zero,’ the main battleground between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group and their allies in the five-month war in 2017, while the OAA refers to eight barangays outside the MAA that were also badly affected by the Marawi Siege.
Latiph noted that on July 4, the first day of filing of claims, the estimated monetary value of the claims filed by some 150 residents that day was 800 million pesos. “That is just for one day,” she said.
A total of 2,073 claimants had filed their application for claims from July 4 to 27.
The Board started adjudicating on August 7, she said.
Lobby for increase in budget
“Definitely I will lobby for an increase in the (Marawi compensation) budget,” Lanao del Sur’s first district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Marawi Rehabilitation and Victims Compensation, said. He told MindaNews he was meeting with the MCB on Tuesday.
RA 11696, signed into law on April 13, 2022 by then President Rodrigo Duterte, provides that the initial funding for implementation 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). For 2023, a billion peso budget was allocated for Marawi compensation, tucked into the budget of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Duterte, then about to end his six-year term by June 30, 2022, did not constitute the nine-member MCB. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also took time to constitute the board. In late 2022, when Congress was deliberating on the 2023 budget, Marcos had yet to appoint the nine-member MCB.
Marcos named the Board members in late January 2023.
Before the House and Senate bills on Marawi compensation were consolidated into what is now RA 11696, most of them proposed 30 billion pesos compensation fund in three equal amounts in the annual GAA for the next three years or 10 billion pesos a year.
But RA 11696 is silent on the amount to be allocated. It merely says that “such amount as may be necessary for the implementation of this Act shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.”
Damages
In 2018, the Post-Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA) under the MRRRP estimated the damages and losses in Marawi at 18.6 billion pesos and noted that financing the full recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi and affected areas would need 51.7 billion pesos.
In March 2019, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Lanao del Sur – Marawi City Chapter submitted to the House Sub-Committee on Marawi Rehabilitation documents pertaining to the claims of 15,102 residents displaced from Ground Zero, amounting to 91.6 billion pesos in damages.
RA 11696 provides that in the absence of baseline data or the required documents, the validated cost estimates and data utilized for the PCNA mandated under the MRRP may be used to determine just compensation. The law also provides that the PCNA be updated within three months after the effectivity of the law.
The updating started on June 19 and was targeted for completion last July 25.
“Purely for compensation”
“We actually proposed 7-B pesos in anticipation of the thousands of eligible claimants for just compensation. However, since we have yet to adjudicate claims for award of monetary compensations, we were not given the full amount,” Latiph said.
She explained that the Board is already in the process of adjudication of death benefit claims, that there is weekly raffle of other claims for destroyed or damaged structures, personal properties and other properties.
According to its Implementing Rules and Regulations, the Board will award heirs of those who died or are legally presumed dead P350,000 although “upon compelling reasons duly alleged and supported by competent evidence by a bona fide heir,” the board en banc “may reasonably increase the award for loss of life herein provided.”
For damaged structures, the Board shall determine the monetary compensation and award of the lawful owner(s) based on the Fair Market Value or replacement cost of totally or repair cost of partially damaged structures of residential, cultural, commercial properties located in the MAA or OAA, whichever is lower.
The valuation of the replacement cost or repair cost of the total area per storey shall be P18,000 per square meter for pure concrete: P13,500 per square meter for mixed concrete and wood; and P9,000 per square meter for light or pure wooden.
For partially damaged structure, the standard costing for repair per scope of work are P12,000 per square meter for pure concrete; P9,000 for mixed concrete and wood; and P6,000 for light or wooden.
Priorities
How will the Board prioritize processing of claims?
“Death Benefits, then the rest of the claims either structure or personal properties depending on the dates filed,” she replied, adding they will be adjudicating “based on the chronological order upon which the filed and processed claims were received by the Board Secretariat.”
The Board Secretariat, she said, processes each and every claim “on the order upon which they received, meaning on the dates they were filed chronologically, and they will prepare the Secretariat Evaluation report containing legal and technical (ocular) evaluation, then recommend to approve or disapprove the filed claim.”
She said a raffle will be held preferably every Monday to the three Divisions of the Board whose members shall then adjudicate the claim based on the Secretariat Evaluation Report (SER) and supporting documents.
The Division has 15 days to decide on the SER raffled to them, then transmit their recommendation to the Board en banc in the form of resolution. The Board en banc shall then render a Decision either to approve or disapprove the resolution.
Latiph said the Board started adjudication on August 7 and “we will do our very best to resolve and decide claims filed before us so that we can utilize the (2023) P1-B funding.”
The Board was constituted only in late January 2023 and its IRR done by May 19.
Application period for claims is from July 4, 2023 to July 3, 2024.
From July 4 to July 27, 32 filed death claims, 42 filed claims on structure, 625 on other property and 1,374 filed under the category of multiple claims.
For the same period, a total of 3,303 had booked appointments onsite or online, to file their claims.
As of Sunday, the available date for booking online is mid-January 2024. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)