“I don’t know if he is still alive or not. But my instinct says he’s alive because he always comes home in my dreams,” Aminolla told AFP.
From May to October 2017, the Philippine military and gunmen linked to the Islamic State group fought brutal house-to-house battles that turned Marawi’s 400-hectare business district into a ghost town.
More than a thousand people were killed, mostly civilians, according to the official count. The International Committee of the Red Cross lists more than 300 missing individuals.
Still waiting
“What the siege destroyed is not only the physical structures and the dead, but the social fabric of our community,” said Drieza Lininding, chairman of the local rights monitor Moro Consensus Group.
The displaced and relatives of those killed are eligible for compensation. A special government board has paid out about P6.5 billion ($104 million), but at least half of the estimated 14,000 claimants are still waiting.
For purposes of establishing loss of life, the board distinguishes between actual and presumptive death, Marawi Compensation Board spokesman Johary Lumna said. While a death certificate or other appropriate certification may establish actual death, it is not required for presumptive death. The board instead evaluates primary and secondary evidence to determine whether there is substantial evidence of loss of life. Aminolla said her family’s claim had been rejected.
At Marawi’s “ground zero,” some destroyed buildings are being rebuilt with compensation funds. Business is also booming in the city’s new commercial district, but former mayor Majul Gandamra estimates that about 10 percent of the city’s 2017 population of 200,000 have yet to return or be resettled.
Four kilometers away, displaced families at the temporary Sagonsongan resettlement site still live in cramped 16-square-meter units they were supposed to vacate in 2022.
Empty shelves
Mother of six Annalyn Pangandaman, 47, said there is no tap water, power cuts are frequent and her husband struggles to find steady work.
“I’m a grocer, but my shelves are empty, zero. We have eaten everything,” she said.
Her 12-year-old daughter, still traumatized by the fighting, cries at the mere sound of something falling on the floor.
“Maybe the greatest injustice that these folks have faced since they lost their homes originally is their inability to return,” said Acram Latiph of the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao.
With the compensation board’s mandate set to expire in 2028, time is running out.
For Aminolla, however, money will never be the answer. “We’re angry because we are not being given the right answers,” she said. “Why is the government still sleeping?”
