It remains a puzzle to many Filipinos how Marawi City is really doing two years after the siege.
On one hand we are told that recovery is under way, and that the people who were displaced have gone back to their homes rebuilding what was destroyed by the terrorists and the efforts to contain them.
In fact on May 23, the second anniversary of the siege, the Office of Global Media Affairs of the Presidential Communications Operations Office brought more than 40 foreign journalists to showcase the rehabilitation program of the government.
The event supposedly counters the disinformation and inaccurate narratives going around about what is happening in Marawi.
Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, assured the locals that Marawi would rise as a prosperous city again. “We are with you until the end of the rehabilitation in 2021.”
But the International Committee of the Red Cross says more than 100,000 displaced people still have to return to their homes.
Countless aid organizations have complemented government efforts to rehabilitate the city and to solve the humanitarian crisis that has resulted from the siege.
Unfortunately the solutions have been far from sustainable. “The people of Marawi have grown tired and frustrated. They want to stand on their own feet again and stop depending on assistance," said Martin Thalmann, ICRC head.
Rehabilitation efforts are of course difficult, complex and never linear. Aside from the provision of basic needs to those who still cannot return from their homes, there remain the issue of livelihood, psychosocial rehabilitation, infrastructure and employment.
It's a good thing President Rodrigo Duterte was only joking when he said he would leave the rehabilitation of the city to its businessmen and affluent residents.
Nobody should consign Marawi to history: It is an ongoing saga of what could go wrong and what could hamper even the most earnest efforts to do good. It reminds us that ultimately it is the people who become casualties of such disasters, and that the decisions made by people at the top affect those on the ground the most.
Moreover, the threat of terrorism looms large still, despite our apparent distraction with politics and other issues. May we remember Marawi every day, despite its distance from the political centers, for all its painful lessons, dire warnings, and continuing challenges.