Senate ready to pour funds for Marawi rehab

MANILA, Philippines -  The Senate is ready to allocate massive funding for the rehabilitation of Marawi City, including passing a supplemental budget if Malacañang requests for it, senators said yesterday.

“It (Marawi rehabilitation) is just a matter of funding and prioritization. If there’s a will there’s a way,” Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Congress in the meantime could pass a supplemental budget authorizing the transfer of funds to augment the calamity and contingent funds.

“We support the President’s desire to help Marawi City recover from this tragic incident,” Drilon said even as he enumerated other options Duterte could take to raise funds for the rehabilitation.

He said the government could use a portion of the P15.7-billion national risk reduction and management fund to augment government relief and long-term rehabilitation efforts.

“However, in view of the considerable losses and damage brought about by the ongoing fight, we urge the President to exercise his power to realign funds in accordance with the recent Supreme Court decision on the use of savings,” he said.

He said the government could also tap the intelligence funds amounting to P5.485 billion, some of which, he said, are “sitting idly in agencies’ accounts,” to fund intensified efforts for rehabilitation, repair and construction of severely damaged infrastructure, buildings and facilities, as well as for swift delivery of basic services to the people of Marawi. 

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on economic affairs, noted that Marawi is the poorest city in the entire Philippines, which led him to believe the real root cause of extremism is poverty.

Gatchalian said in the short term, the government should build new schools, universities, hospitals, all government facilities, roads and give out housing aid.

He said the P20 billion mentioned by Duterte will be only good for housing aid.

“We need to inject more for the infrastructure. In the medium-term, I propose to set up a dedicated local economic and development center in Marawi and Cotabato City,” he said.

He said the government should identify economic efforts that would jumpstart the Marawi City economy as well as that of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“Investments and job creation will be the main goal of this center. The only way to prevent extremism is to make sure people have the basic necessities for their family,” Gatchalian said.

Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, described Duterte’s P20-billion rehabilitation plan as a good start.

“Both houses of Congress are surely willing to extend whatever appropriations or budgetary support that may be necessary going forward for the rebuild,” Angara said.

China donates P15 M

Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jinhua presented on Tuesday to President Duterte a P15-million check donation that will augment the resources of the Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare and Development for the various health and welfare operations in Marawi.

 – With Catherine Talavera, Pia Lee-Brago, Emmanuel Tupas