MARAWI CITY: Maranao leaders are calling for the abolition of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) for its alleged failure to rebuild the city almost two years after it was devastated during the Marawi Siege.

Accusing the TFBM leadership of “incompetence,” the Maranao leaders said they were pinning their hope on the newly established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to rehabilitate Marawi City.

Sultan Hamidullah Atar of the Royal House of Marawi told The Manila Times that he agreed to the call for the abolition of TFBM. “The TFBM-released video and statement that the economy of Marawi is booming and the people have already recovered is a big lie,” he said.

In a media briefing, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim who also serves as interim BARMM chief minister for a three-year period while the foundation is being laid for a new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said that the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) would use a significant portion of the leftover P32 million budget for ARMM this year, to hasten the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi.

The National Housing Authority also attested that it has P2.1 billion for the reconstruction of Marawi’s most affected areas (MAAs).

Saying that TFBM head Secretary Eduardo del Rosario should resign, Atar lamented, “All of us know that until now, the rehabilitation has not begun and 27,000 families from Ground Zero are suffering so much,”

Former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) vice governor Haroun Alrashid Lucman, Jr. earlier said it was lamentable that the TFBM is taking care of our lives but no Maranao is a member. “Most, if not all of its members have not even set foot in the devastated city,” he added.

The Bangsamoro Consensus Group, composed of displaced Marawi professionals, said that instead of its oft-aired demand for the resignation of the Housing and Urban
Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Secretary as TFBM head, the President Rodrigo Duterte should abolish the task force and let the BTA take charge of rebuilding the city.

A Department of Public Works and Highways official, who is a member of the TFBM technical working group, earlier attributed the delay in reconstruction efforts to del Rosario’s alleged “lack of technical know how.”

Even House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had lamented the delayed rehabilitation and created a special working committee to look into it and make recommendations.

Some sectors have also used social media to call for the abolition of TFBM

“TFBM has a new identity! It is a Task False Bangon Marawi!!! All they say is falsehood aimed at deceiving Maranaos on the rehabilitation of Marawi and they spend billions of the country’s taxpayers’ money with no substantial proof to show how the money was spent,” said Abdul Majeed Pangandaman in his FB account.

While others said, they no longer trusted TFBM, Ali Valak accused the TFBM of “destroying Lanao in connivance with some unscrupulous leaders.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross said some 46,000 Marawi evacuees were still languishing in different shelter camps in Northern Mindanao.