Bishop visits Marawi months after siege

Marawi Bishop Edwin dela Peña visits St. Mary’s Cathedral for the first time since the city was attacked by local terrorists. PHOTO BY CBCP NEWS

Marawi Bishop Edwin dela Peña on Thursday visited the damaged St. Mary’s Cathedral for the first time since the city was taken over by the Maute group, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) reported on Friday.

Bishop dela Peña said he spent "a very emotional" day in the Islamic City because he saw the ruined city center and the cathedral.

“So many memories. We were the ones who built this. Now, everything is destroyed, even the trees we planted are riddled with damage from bullets and mortar,” he said on the report.

Marawi City, which was attacked by the terrorist Maute group on May 23, was declared liberated by President Rodrigo Duterte on October 17, 2017.

The St. Mary’s Cathedral is only one of the many religious structures, whether Catholic or Islamic, that was caught in the hail of gunfire and airstrikes during the bloody six-month battle between terrorists and government forces.

“I feel hopeful that people will help us rebuild her, the cathedral. But my priority is not the building but the needs of the community,” Dela Peña said.

As the head of Duyog Marawi, a movement of  peace-building rehabilitation efforts, the prelate aims to improve inter-faith relations and heal traumatized residents.

The CBCP said volunteers have been reaching out to war-affected communities and home-based  internally displaced persons for the past three months.

The report said that priests, nuns and lay people are helping the program through the Caritas but the bulk of volunteers are young Muslims from Marawi. — Margaret Claire Layug/BAP, GMA News