The deafening silence of the Marawi Compensation Board (MCB) is worrisome. It’s been a while since victims filed claims. Claimants are restless and at their wit’s end. What happened to their claims? What’s new? What’s going on? No texts or calls from anyone on the Board about their claims. What should claimants do next in the process? Nobody is in the house authoritative enough to answer queries. This is doubly confusing for the unlettered victims.

When the Board was first constituted, it promised transparency and regular updates on the progress of claims. The delay is perhaps understandable given the throng of claimants diurnally queueing before the make-up tables to file claims. But a considerable amount of time has elapsed, and claimants are edgy lest their claims be cast in limbo.

Transparency breeds goodwill and confidence. Silence or a dearth of information leads to unsavory rumor-mongering. Claimants are not asking how the Board will decide their claims and what guideposts the Board will follow in assessing the claims. That is a no-no in an adjudicatory agency. These are internal matters that should not be divulged to the public lest it jeopardize the integrity of the process. But is an advisory posted at their office or broadcast over local radio or social media too much to ask of them? Why are there no updates on the claims? 

The claimants were told that after filing, they would be notified about the inspection of their properties for documentation and would later be required to appear before the Board to testify, present witnesses if necessary, and adduce evidence to support their claims. The Board is, after all, a quasi-judicial body, and hearings are akin to a court of justice. Claimants were and are prepared for this.

Unfortunately, the board has not spoken on the progress of the processing. Some claimed that the MCB Facebook account, which had become a popular information portal, had been taken down. The last thing they learned was that last year, a few families of deceased victims of the siege were paid, and a promise was made that the next to be compensated would be the claimants whose houses and other structures were damaged.

Does the MCB have an office of media or information that could churn out information or where one could get updates?

The situation is fertile ground for “marites” exchanging information that may be deepfake and even disparaging. Desperate victims tend to cook up stories and buy tales that may, unfortunately, be libelous to MCB officials, even if devoid of truth. This is not surprising. But they talk because they have nothing good to say about the Board. The MCB must extricate them from the morass of ignorance.

Amid the anxiety and worry came a whiff of fresh hope. And it was from a media report a fortnight ago, not from the MCB. The report was about a Mindanaoan senior member of the Committee on Accounts, House of Representatives, announcing that “roughly P6 billion will be set aside by the government to compensate the displaced victims of the five-month siege that ravaged Marawi City in 2017... on top of the initial P1 billion in programmed appropriations in 2023 and another P1 billion under this year’s national budget.” So we ask the MCB, “es verdad?” Or are they the words of a typical politician selling snake oil?

Recall that claimants were worried that the P1 billion yearly appropriation would be the template compensation budget. The recent news has enlivened and given hope to the evacuee victims who are sacrificing and fasting during this Holy Ramadan.

Are the victims just impatient? Probably.

In the meantime, it is best that the MCB improve its messaging to the victims through the various information media to assuage their confusion and anxiety.

amb_mac_lanto@yahoo.com