For Inquiries: Prof. Tirmizy Abdullah – 09564015008 or 09083241195; Gani Abunda – isaganiabunda07@gmail.com
We, members and networks of the Marawi Advocacy Accompaniment (MAA), composed of bakwit communities (internally displaced persons – IDPs), civil society organizations, women and youth, and Meranaw leaders together with their allies in the broader peacebuilding community today, in commemoration of the 8th anniversary of the siege of our beloved Marawi City, reiterate our calls for justice, truth, human rights protection, and peace towards the full realization of an IDP-centered and IDP-sensitive safe and dignified return of all IDPs back to Marawi.
Towards this, we urge the government and concerned agencies to act decisively.
Eight years have passed since the Marawi Siege, the crisis of prolonged displacement still puts many lives in grave peril and has deprived the IDPs of their rights as human beings. Amid much publicized rehabilitation efforts in the city’s Most Affected Areas, the promise to rebuild the lives of the victims and survivors of the siege remains utterly unfulfilled.
We believe that the issue of displacement, especially one that is driven by armed-conflict, is a transitional justice issue that must deliberately respond to the justice claims of the IDPs by addressing the bakwits’ most pressing needs, redress for the victims and their families, and by supporting our advocacy for durable solution.
Today, we demand that the Philippine government, through the Marawi Compensation Board (MCB), fast-track the compensation process for all eligible IDPs and their families and observe the principles of providing just compensation. We believe that the national government has an obligation to address the issue more comprehensively by looking at the justice claims for the victims of the siege.
Moreover, we appeal to the concerned agencies to urgently address the dire living conditions in the temporary shelters, where many IDPs continue to suffer from inadequate access to basic services. Until today, Marawi IDPs have been experiencing difficulties since our forced evacuation in 2017. There are still unmet needs and challenges while we wallow in cramped IDP camps and shelter communities, such as lack of food and livelihood opportunities, poor sanitation, and hygiene conditions.
We urge both the national and regional Bangsamoro governments to take into account equally relevant challenges confronting the IDPs, including land conflict and dispossession in Marawi, which affects especially four (4) barangays within ground zero; building of large-scale public infrastructures inside MAA.
Rebuilding our beloved city must be anchored on the principle of pursuing truth, justice, and accountability within a transitional justice framework to comprehensively address the roots of festering conflict and to ensure that another Marawi siege or a similar tragic incident will never happen again. Delaying justice for the victims of the siege is resulting in prolonged emotional and psychological trauma to the families and survivors.
To realize this, there is an urgent need to institutionalize relevant peace and social justice measures to end decades of conflict and structural poverty in the region, and most importantly, address the historical injustices committed against the Bangsamoro and all other inhabitants of Mindanao.
Eight years after the siege, our calls remain louder:
KAMBALINGAN!
JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE MARAWI SIEGE!
(Kambalingan is a Meranaw term which means ‘voluntary, safe, and dignified return’ of IDPs) ###
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