P50 billion initially needed to rebuild Marawi, Palace says
The Philippine government needs initially P50 billion to rebuild war-torn Marawi City, officials said on Friday.
In a press briefing, Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Banaag said that based on the initial post conflict needs assessment, as of date, the total damage in the city was estimated at P11.61 billion, while opportunity loses were over P5.5 billion.
"The initial estimate of total needs is 49.81 billion pesos. The final results are expected within the month, as committed by the Office of Civil Defense," she said.
Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairperson Eduardo del Rosario, also head of Task Force Bangon Marawi, said the National Economic and Development Authority is in the process of coming up with the comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction plan.
He said the plan is expected to be out on the second week of March.
"In this a compressed CRRP-- we call it CRRP-- when it comes out, it will now factor in everything that would include the master development plan being envisioned by the city of Marawi and the province of Lanao Del Sur," Del Rosario said.
Under the timetable, he said the actual ground works for the most affected areas in Marawi will start by April 15.
"It’s about 250 hectares were basically all vertical infrastructures were totally destroyed. And we are now in the process of selecting the developer that will be subjected to Swiss challenge and once we’re done with that, then the actual implementation will start. And now based on our timetable, we are going to have it by April 15," Del Rosario said.
He said the government will choose from among five developers who will undertake the rehabilitation of Marawi.
He said the five developers are expected to submit their unsolicited proposals by January 15.
The government has organized a technical working group to select from the five developers based on their submission, Del Rosario said.
"And then, once we have selected the original proponent, the original proponent and technical working group will sit down, come up with the details, term of preference and scope of work. Once it is completed, this will be published in the national newspaper," he said.
"And in 30 days, anybody, any developer interested (can) challenge. If they say, this developer can do it for 50 billion (pesos), and there’s another developer would say I can do it for 40 billion (pesos), then the original proponent has to offer a better pricing for the same quality of his original proposal. we will be imposing a five percent reduction so that he can outbid the lowest, so in this way, we will get the best offer that the government can possibly get," Del Rosario added. Celerina Monte/DMS
