DBM authorizes P1B fund for Marawi

The Department of Budget and Management authorized the disbursement of a P1 billion fund to give compensation to the victims of the Marawi siege.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said that DBM has approved a special allocation release order to pay the compensation for Marawi siege victims under the 2023 General Appropriations Act.

The Marawi Compensation Board estimates that 362 victims will receive financial compensation from the P1 billion allotted under the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund.

The 2023 GAA's NDRRMF special clause indicates that the initial allocation is for compensation for any lawful owner of residential, cultural, commercial, and other properties in Marawi's principal impacted regions or other affected locations that were destroyed or partially damaged during the siege; owners of private properties demolished during Marawi's recovery, restoration, and reconstruction; and heirs of the deceased or believed dead, i]in accordance with Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022

"The rehabilitation and recovery of Marawi has always been a project that is close to my heart," Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said.

"I am a Maranao by soul and blood, and I feel so much joy and pride seeing Marawi rise again six years after the siege. Seeing my fellow Maranaos overcome that dreadful history with so much strength and resiliency brings warmth to my heart," she added.

Meanwhile, calls to augment the compensation for Marawi siege victims from the current P1 billion to P5 billion for 2024 will be rest at the sound discretion of Congress, which has the power of the purse.

Budget Undersecretary Goddes Libiran told the Daily Tribune in a text message earlier this week that since the 2024 National Expenditure Program has already been submitted to Congress, "the increase in the budget can no longer be introduced by the executive branch."

"Thus, we defer to the wisdom of Congress on whether the proposed increase will be included in the General Appropriations Bill," Libiran said.

In 2022, Pangandaman said the Marcos administration earmarked P1 billion to compensate the displaced victims of the five-month siege that ravaged Marawi City in 2017 lodged under the 31-billion Calamity Fund.

However, Basilan lawmaker Mujiv Hataman – then-governor of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during the siege – lamented during the budget deliberations that the annual P1 billion allotted by the DBM for the Marawi victims is "immensely insufficient," especially since the Marawi Compensation Board was only given five years to finish paying the victims.

Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act of 2022 (RA 11696), inked by then-president Rodrigo Duterte, intends to provide reparation and compensation to Marawi residents whose properties were defaced or wrecked during the five-month clash of Maute terror group in the Islamic City of Marawi in 2017.

Marawi City was stormed by Islamic State-inspired homegrown terrorists and left homes, properties, and businesses destroyed after the five-month siege.

Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao in 2017 amid the clashes. It ended after two years in 2019.