Here is another update on Marawi for today edition


Visited the Barra Barangay (district) in Cagayan de Oro city
today, 3 hours east of Marawi, where around 1000 internally
displaced peoples (IDPs) have been living over the past five
months since the start of the war with ISIS that destroyed their
hometown. The IDPs have been displaced all over the country,
some here, some in Iligan, some in Davao, some in Cebu, and
some in Manila, totaling 395,000 estimated people. There were
only 200,000 in Marawi, so some of them left from neighboring
towns out of fear of the spread of ISIS. They have lost their
homes and jobs, with no real hope of returning for some of
them. I interviewed one of the heads of the Department of
Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) here today, who were
giving out 2000 pesos (40 dollars) per person for ten days of
work (200 pesos per day) that they each performed this month
to clean up the neighborhood and highway. That was the deal:
work and get paid. They had received 1000 pesos each last
month as a free handout, and per the government are entitled
to 5000 each as per the monetary allocation decided upon,
meaning they still have 2000 left for next month. DSWD has yet
to decide whether that will also be a 'work for cash' deal.
The last two videos show the first IDP's returning to Marawi
yesterday. There will be around 1500-3000 people returning on
a daily basis based on predetermined locations. The first
location chosen was the barangay of Basik Malutlut, where the
house of the emir of ISIS Southeast Asia, Isnilon Hapilon, was
shelled on the first day of the war by a preemptive strike next
to a mosque where foreign fighters had gathered for a week
under a pretense of a Muslim religious holiday before the holy
month of Ramadan. Symbolic and political in its choice?
Probably. But the important thing is that these poor victims of
unnecessary war get to go home. Hopefully the ones I met
today are able to return home soon as well.

The first Friday prayers in Marawi City for citizens after nearly 5
months of war with ISIS were held yesterday at these two
mosques, one along Lake Lanao overlooking the devastating
ruins of the city, and the other next to the shelled remains of
the house of the emir of ISIS Southeast Asia, Isnilon Hapilon,
who was killed on October 16th in a firefight with the military.
Back in May, one week before the war started, the second
mosque, which is the largest in Philippines and can hold 10,000
people, was used as a meeting place for foreigners under the
guise of a religious holiday before the holy fasting month of
Ramadan. They then stayed in the city to join the already
planned siege, and the final ISIS fighters to die last week when
the war ended were actually foreigners. The congregation of the
mosque deny that any fighters originated from there, and they
say Hapilon himself never came to the mosque, but I question
how much of that is true. We will never know. Rather than deny
that a problem may have originated from gatherings in the
confines of a mosque, going forward it is essential for the
Muslims in Marawi, and all over the world, to acknowledge that
these ideologies tend to arise from their buildings and
institutions of worship. The first sermons in 5 months were
given today and they talked about peace because that is what
Islam preaches at its core. But that message must be
steadfastly repeated by the 'ulamas', or religious leaders, if the
rise of terrorism in this city and around the world has any
chance of being defeated in the long term. They must be aware
of all that is being said and all who are coming to worship, at
all times. They are responsible for the education of their
worshippers, and miseducation, or lack thereof, cannot be
tolerated anymore. It is the responsibility of the elders to
spread the right message. Hopefully, from this horrible war,
they now have this realization. We shall see. In the meantime,

Destroy city,where to start from?