A P10 billion multi-agency rehabilitation program to be implemented over six months is being prepared by the government for Marawi City.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella, speaking during the Mindanao Hour program at Radyo ng Bayan, said the Executive Order for “Bangon Marawi” is now with the Office of the Executive Secretary undergoing refinements before being submitted to the President.
According to Abella, Bangon Marawi will be led by the Department of National Defense and will be a multi agency effort, which would include the DTI, DepEd, DSWD, DPWH, DoE, and DICT, among others and will be in conjunction with the Disaster Risk Reduction Cluster of the government. Abella explained that the effort may begin after clearing the city which should take about one or two weeks.
“We assure you that the President is deeply concerned for the city, the region and the island’s well being and is very hands-on to ensure that normalcy will be restored at the soonest possible time and serve people’s aspirations for a comfortable life for all,” he said.
Meanwhile, Abella said Malacañang appreciates the statement of United Kingdom Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad, who said, “I don’t think there is something intrinsically wrong with declaring martial law or declaring state of calamity or state of emergency. It is how you use those facilities constitutionally to be held accountable and bring the situation under control.”
“We appreciate ‘yung statement po ng Ambassador to support the Constitutional implementation of martial law and military action to suppress violence and impose control and security,” Abella said.
“Both the Philippines and the United Kingdom had suffered immensely from recent terrorist attacks and we reiterate our sympathy and solidarity with the victims in the Manchester and London atrocities and we stand with the UK and the entire civilized world against this threat masquerading as religious war,” he added.
Meanwhile, Abella said President Duterte has tasked Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio Evasco to monitor and push infrastructure projects.
“Ito po, this will speed up not just projects funded by tax reforms from Congress, but also tens of billions of dollars of investments coming from China, Japan, and other nations,” Abella said.
“Tingnan po natin. Let us look at the real picture behind all of these things. Tuloy-tuloy po ang pag-usad ng ekonomiya ng Pilipinas. We are looking forward to a bright future,” he added. ###PND
