Diverting P5M for Hajj a compassionate but unlawful act

ALTHOUGH there were good intentions behind it, the diversion of P5 million in funds from the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) meant for the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City to the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) to finance the Hajj for displaced citizens was irregular and the officials involved must be made to account.

The chief of the government’s “Bangon Marawi” rehabilitation program, Eduardo del Rosario, has argued that the funds were used for a “social healing process in the overall rehabilitation of Marawi,” which was virtually destroyed in five months of fighting between the ISIS-affiliated Maute group and the Philippine armed forces in 2017.