Aftermath
Marawi, Mindanao, Philippines April 2018
On May 23, 2017 in Marawi, a city in the southern Philippines , in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, local governative forces raided the supposed hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, a former leader of the Abu Sayyaf organization affiliated with the Islamic State. Reinforcements from an allied group, the Maute, and dozens of affiliated fighters opposed much tougher resistance than expected. Reportedly they occupied the city hall of Marawi, the State University and a hospital, and they set fire to a Catholic church, the city prison and two schools. After blocking the main roads and two bridges leading to the city, they seized a large number of civilians as hostages and beheaded a police officer. President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the entire island of Mindanao, and over the next five months, almost 360,000 people were displaced from Marawi and the near suburbs, in temporary shelters outside the city, the surrounding evacuations centers. Many civilians remained trapped in their houses or taken as hostages, checkpoints were set up at the entry and exit points, as helicopters flew over the city and soldiers arrived in trucks. Secessionist paramilitary groups have been operating since long time in the area, and they have been blamed for bombings, attacks against government forces and kidnappings in the Philippines. The siege of Marawi was preceded by decades of separatist resistance enhanced by a pre-existing culture of conflict and the background of the current separatist uprising must be depicted in a context of poverty, marginalization and lack of inclusive governance. Starting from the first military raid in May, the various attempts by government forces to defeat the rebel squads and track down the leaders of the attack were repeatedly thwarted. The rebels managed each time to escape finding new refugees helped by numerous new recruits and foreign fighters, ready to unexpectedly appear in defense of the leaders, causing violent and extensive firefights throughout the city. Military forces began dropping bombs targeting buildings supposed to be rebels shelters, as well as militant-controlled areas, and any other places where insurgent snipers had been spotted. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed and some civilians were killed. The airstrikes were meant to be surgical according to Filipino military spokesmen, and intended to eliminate up to 40 fighters believed to be hiding in Marawi. After the official end of the fight independent studies were announced to find out about the intervention legitimacy and actual responsibilities for real damage, losses and injured during the air strikes, and Philippine armed forces were accused of looting and abuses by alleged victims and international Human Rights organizations. Authorities estimated that 1100 people were killed, mostly insurgents, including 166 soldiers and 47 civilians. At least 360,000 people were displaced and large parts of Marawi have been destroyed. On October 17, 2017, after the death of militant leaders Omar Maute and Isnilon Hapilon, President Duterte declared that Marawi had been "liberated from terrorist influence”. Repopulation started right after. The army began clearing operations, checking every building and people have been allowed to go back to the city.
Evacuated people started to repopulate Marawi, in April, 2018, just 25000 people of the entire 400.000 population, got back to the zones considered mine-free and only when buildings have been estimated safe enough. Tradesmen and farmers have been fighting to live out in an empty context trying to sell directly their products to the survivors.
Citizens who have already reentered the liberated zones are occupying skeletons of buildings in order to try and restart their businesses.
After clearance operations started, shutters, doors and external entrances in the few areas that have already been liberated, show signs initialed with AFP (Army Forces of Philippines) to confirm that the building has been checked and considered safe. It took months for the AFP to clear the main battle area, supported by allied surveillance systems and special military teams.
Around the city you can see many signs with photos or identikits of the suspects, explanatory images on the types of weapons that can be recognized in order to identify possible armed men, and many peace boards, aimed at protecting some areas of the city, such as schools and hospitals.
Army is an omnipresent force in the Philippines, because of the high risk of terrorism. Human rights activists have begun to report abuses, involving several departments in murder charges especially in recent decades during President Duterte's fight against drugs. Generally citizens recognize police fearfulness, but grant them the legitimacy of unlimited use of the power in the name of national security, beyond mere persuasion. Besides, in local culture military forces are also positively associated with their intervention during the management of the numerous natural disasters affecting the Philippines.
Opinions on infrastructure damage vary, but costs for reconstruction have been unanimously estimated extremely high. Huge areas have been devastated during firefights and airstrikes flattened entire city blocks.
All the places reputed to be the hiding places of the leaders of the siege were riddled with machine gunshots during coordinated attacks against which the militants opposed a strenuous defense. Some of these buldings collapsed after the air strikes erasing all traces of the clashes.
Part of the suburbs have not been involved in the warfare. People were allowed to stay home, the conflict didn’t get near these areas and the airstrikes did not reach any of houses. Nevertheless people here have been heavily affected by the elimination of commercial demand and the difficulty of supplies provision.
Since the very first days of the repopulation in the areas considered secured after the military safety operations, it‘s been necessary to reactivate a basic transport network to permit movements among the different cleared areas.
After violence escalation 98% of Marawi’s population, including some families in neighboring municipalities, was evacuated. Philippinian government established 78 evacuation centers situated in Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, and Misamis Occidental, that shelter about 20000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), while almost 3500000 have been relocated in several different villages around Mindanao island.
Soon all evacuation centers around Marawi city, including the ones in Buru-un and Saguiaran, Pantao Ragat, Pantar, Balo-i, were full. This evacuation center has been opened to face the overcrowding of the others that are hosting the displaced people since the emergency.
In October 2017 Philhealth identification card were created for the internally displaced because most of them left behind all birth certificates, passports or identification cards. This operation helped evacuees locating, personal health monitoring and equal benefits provision.
Because of lack of funds people with different physical abilities or the elderly are not being prioritized in these settlements, receiving same if not less resources compared to younger, able-bodied residents in good health. Father’s suffer from diabetes; he often have severe blood sugar crises that are difficult to manage due to lack of insulin and medicins and he can no longer walk. His family says they have already said goodbye to him, they know they will arrive prepared at the right time.
Water tanks are emptying out. Emergency phase has been declared over after Marawi repopulation projects started, water supplied by Ngos is not sufficient for drinking, personal hygiene and ablutions, all the residents have to eke out.
Kambicita project staff organize small trips to the city to collect what camp hosts can find in their houses in Marawi. At the time of the emergency outbreak, evacuees didn’t bring a lot of things, everything was really fast and they thought the siege would have last 1 or 2 days tops.
Many of the people that live inside the evacuation camps have always been poor even before the conflict started. Unable to return home they continue to suffer from dehydration, infections and waterborne diseases. Basic sanitation, food, and medical supplies are limited, NGOs were efficient right after the emergency and during the aftermath of the evacuation during the siege of the city, especially children care associations. The official end of the conflict, has marked the beginning of a gradual decrease of the Humanitarian International Organization action.
Although the vast majority of civilians fled Marawi in the first phase of the conflict, many civilians remained trapped inside the city during the ongoing fighting, at risk of being captured as hostages, or killed during the firefights and bombings. During evacuation operations, some families managed to stay together, others were divided.
IDPs are allowed to go to the madrasa in the area to study arabic basics. Children go to school only in the weekends from 8am to 3pm to learn arabic culture and other main subjects.
A lot of displaced people are missing. Some of them could not leave the city during evacuations procedures, some others ended up injured in emergency hospitals, and the warfare also claimed casualties among civilians. A mother of some boys in the center show hanging clothes, she says that one of her children has disappeared and that in the meantime she is continuing to wash his clothes to be ready in case he comes back.
There are just 8 toilets for 200 people inside the camp – since the beginning residents can use the toilets inside the madrasa and a mosque for a total of 11 toilets – this critical deficiency compromises sanitation and hygiene increasing substantially the risk of infections outbreaks
At the beginning there were complains, especially because before the siege terrorist warning signs have been reported threatening imminent attacks for long, but local government dismissed them as rumours declaring that nothing was gonna happen. Besides, some projects of urban reconstruction plan on locate new municipal buildings where private houses have been razed to the ground, with the relocation of the inhabitants to other areas - Some are convinced that the urban reconstruction plans also include the construction of public buildings where private houses were previously situated without providing for compensation or alternative arrangements that could be at least worthy of the previous ones.So far none of the people in charge at confirmed that urban planning delineation preceding the siege would be changed.
They are allowed to go out, but they have to get back on time before sunset. Some of them drive, because at the time of the evacuation they could get here by car or motorcycle, or they managed to get their vehicles back thanks to Kambicita project.
“We pray for all our beloved. And we are looking for everyone an evacuation centre where there are no militants.” Hosts have been reached out by terrorists, and there is evidence that a large number of child soldiers have been recruited for the warfare.
Every week each family receive 4 packs of corned beef, rise, sardines and coffee. Hosts are on the same diet after almost an year, they started to grow vegetables by themselves.
Offices have been flooded during Vica Typhoon: residents usually meet here operators to try to understand when they’ll be allowed to go back to their houses, asking to the people in charge. Like the rest of the country, evacuation centers can also be affected by natural disasters. Although this center was set up to cope with the siege of the city, the signs of the flood that hit the area seem to remind a constant aspect of Filipino population. Right now they are here for an armed conflict, they may have to return for any other destructive natural event in the future, as some of them already did in the past.
Inside the center, inhabitants share the products of the garden and the tasks to carry out. Older people seem to lead the reconstruction of social dynamics showing capacity of coexistance and solidarity. In the center some residents express their anger not only towards the rebels but also against the decision to bomb the city, recalling that many people have lost everything. But many families are well aware of housing displacements in the country due to the numerous natural disasters that have always afflicted Philippines. An ability to adapt, peculiar of the local culture that granted during Marawi siege the acceptance of the arduos conditions and made possible the actual realization of a hard and abrupt mass evacuation.
I’ts going to take time for the city reconstruction. Next step will be transfer of all the evacuees from the evaction centers located out of the most affected areas of city, to new centers that will be placed in cleared areas closer to each other, in order to start recomposing the urban community.