Gov’t optimistic about Marawi rehab; groundbreaking moved to Sept. 19

Government planners remain optimistic that the rehabilitation of Marawi City’s ground zero will be completed in December 2021, despite continued delays in selecting a private developer.

The inter-agency Task Force Bangon Marawi now aims to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on September 19, which was originally scheduled to take place last June.

However, negotiations between the task force and Bangon Marawi Consortium on the development plan for ground zero fell through as the Filipino-Chinese consortium failed in the financial, technical, and legal requirements.

The task force is now negotiating with Power Construction Corporation of China or PowerChina for rehabilitating the most affected area that was leveled during the five-month battle between government troops and IS-inspired Maute rebels last year.

The cost of rebuilding the 250-hectare area is now pegged at P16.8 billion.

Should there be successful negotiations, PowerChina’s proposal will be subjected to a Swiss challenge which allows other interested developers to make counter proposals for the project covering ground zero that straddles 24 out of the 96 barangays.

“It will not affect our target deadline of completing the most-affected-area rehabilitation by December of 2021,” said Housing Secretary and Task Force Bangon Marawi chairperson Eduardo del Rosario at a news conference in Malacañang.

“We are negotiating with the second developer which is ChinaPower, and so far I was informed by the selection committee headed by [Task Force Bangon Marawi] Undersecretary Ace Millar that the negotiation is moving on smoothly and, as stated earlier in his briefing, it will be completed by the end of next week.”

Among the infrastructure and facilities to be built on the ground zero are ports and wharves within Lanao Lake, schools, and wider road networks with underground utilities for power, water, and telecommunication similar to the design of Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Also to be built are sewage treatment plants, convention center, museum, parking building, peace memorial park, market, sanitary landfill, and lakeside promenade.

The task force said Gomisa Avenue will be transformed into a pedestrian street to create a commercial center similar to the bustling shopping district of Myeong-dong in Seoul, South Korea.

“Since not all projects in the MAA rehabilitation can be considered as profit-generating activity, then we have to separate that and we are now doing the separation [of projects]. In other projects that will not require [a Swiss challenge] it will be a negotiated procurement,” Del Rosario said. 

To rebuild Marawi City and the towns of Butig and Piagapo in Lanao del Sur, P72 billion to P75 billion would have to be spent according to government estimates. —VDS, GMA News